Catacombs
by amidoh
Summary: Amidamaru has been incompletely incarnated and is being held prisoner. Yoh will go to any lengths to rescue his friend, but can he bear the horrible truth that Amidamaru is concealing about his torture? Amidoh slash. CHAPTER 14 UP LEMONY FRESHNESS!
1. Disaster Strikes

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King characters, though I really wish I owned Amidamaru (sobs)  
  
  
  
"Amidamaru! Into the sword!" Yoh grunted as he swung his sword round at the brooms. "Amidamaru, strike! Strike _again_!"  
  
Anna checked her watch.  
  
"Hmm, not bad. I want that lot over there done now." She waved her hand vaguely towards a clearing under the shadow of a maple tree where Manta was struggling to arrange some particularly vindictive brooms.  
  
"And what will you be doing?" Yoh panted as Amidamaru materialised by his side again.  
  
"I'll be making dinner. And if you're not done to my satisfaction, you don't get any." Anna calmly walked off towards the house, red bandana flowing in the light breeze. Yoh gaped after her before walking slowly towards Manta and the next few targets. His guardian spirit floated a few paces behind him.  
  
"I swear she was a prison warder in a previous life." Yoh gasped. "Either that or she just gets a really sadistic kick when she sees me exhausted and starving to death on the doorstep with nothing but a dead guy to keep me company and all the people walking past wondering why I'm talking to myself."  
  
The young shaman flopped on the ground, not hearing the desperate cries of Manta, who was hanging determinedly off one of the brooms.  
  
"Are you all right, Yoh?" Amidamaru asked, his voice radiating genuine concern.  
  
"I'm so _tired_." Yoh's eyelids drooped. "Do you know how tiring it is to gain spirit control?"  
  
Amidamaru raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Do I _look_ like the sort of person who'd know?" He asked, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice. Yoh squinted at him and grinned sheepishly.  
  
"Um... maybe not."  
  
Amidamaru rolled his eyes and indicated over his shoulder.  
  
"By the way, Yoh, it looks like Manta needs your help."  
  
Yoh looked past, or rather, through the ghost and watched Manta, who had fallen to the ground. The broom, which was by now rather irked, had purposely fallen on top of him and he now looked rather two-dimensional.  
  
"Amidamaru!" He yelled suddenly, making his guardian jump. "Into the sword! Amidamaru, strike!"  
  
The blade whipped downward, embedding in the ground inches from Manta's head. The small boy turned fearfully to look at it. The broom lay in two pieces next to him.  
  
"Th – thanks, Yoh." He stuttered before hoisting himself to his feet. "I - I think I'll go... get a drink... or something..."  
  
He tottered off in the direction of the house. Yoh turned to where Amidamaru had materialised at his side, but the spirit was no longer there.  
  
"Amidamaru?" the young shaman asked, turning in a full circle. Amidamaru was back by the maple tree, doubled over, rivulets of sweat streaming down his spectral face. Yoh crossed over to him.  
  
"Amidamaru?" the shaman asked again, radiating concern. The ghost looked up at him, panting in a reflex action that, though not needed for 600 years, was still used. A pained smile lit his angular, pale face.  
  
"I appear to have..." he sought for the correct word. "... Indigestion..."  
  
It was Yoh's turn to raise an eyebrow.  
  
"Indigestion? I didn't think ghosts ate."  
  
"We don't."  
  
"So how did you get indigestion?" Yoh asked, his dark blue eyes narrowed in confusion. He could tell that Amidamaru was as confused as he.  
  
"No... idea..."  
  
Amidamaru grunted as the pain in his spectral gut flared. Yoh did the only thing humanly possible at a time such as this. He reverted to human instinct.  
  
"Um... maybe you should lie down?" He said. Amidamaru looked at him and then keeled over, making no move apart from the 90-degree change in position. Yoh smiled wryly.  
  
"I _meant_ in a bed."  
  
"What's the... point...? I'd only go... straight through it... sleep on the floor..." Amidamaru whimpered and clutched his head. "My... head..."  
  
"Headache, dude? What is _up_ with you?"  
  
"Don't... know... maybe just... tired..."  
  
"Tired? Hey, Amidamaru, update: you're dead!"  
  
"I know... I was there..."  
  
Yoh rolled his eyes despite the circumstances. Even in the strangest situations his spirit friend was capable of being a) a sarcastic idiot and b) a plain, normal, common or garden idiot.  
  
"So how could you be tired?"  
  
"Don't... know... can't... think..." Amidamaru groaned and again keeled over 90 degrees so that he was now completely upside down. Yoh stepped back in surprise. He had never before seen his spirit lose control like this.  
  
"Hey... Amidamaru... turn over again or all the blood'll rush to your head and your headache'll get worse..."  
  
Yoh mentally slapped himself, realising how stupid what he just said was, but Amidamaru didn't seem to have heard him. The young samurai was again on his back, floating lower and lower towards the ground.  
  
"Feel... sick..." His voice had sunk almost to a whisper and Yoh had to strain his ears to hear it.  
  
"Uh... just as long as you don't get it on the floor. I don't know if ghost puke stains, but Anna's a nightmare when there's extra cleaning and I certainly don't want to risk it..."  
  
"Urgh..."  
  
Amidamaru retched in a surprisingly human way for a dead warrior. It was the fact that he hadn't eaten for over 6 centuries and nothing came up that saved him from certain misery at the hands of Anna, who just didn't hold with ectoplasm or ghost vomit or anything else that might stain the carpet.  
  
Yoh winced.  
  
"Erm... this might seem like a stupid question, but... are you ok?" He asked tentatively. Amidamaru looked up at him with eyes that were even more hollow then they had been minutes ago, and this was quite a feat considering he was dead.  
  
"I feel..." the samurai began and then he crashed over backwards and spoke no more.  
  
"AMIDAMARU!" Yoh cried, rushing over to his friend, who was now hovering so close to the ground that he almost touched. The shaman instinctively reached to wipe the sweat off Amidamaru's forehead, but his hand went straight through the ghost. Amidamaru shuddered and Yoh had the strangest sensation that he had just dipped his hand in iced water.  
  
"It'll be ok, Amidamaru. I don't know what's wrong with you, but it'll be ok."  
  
In honesty, Yoh didn't know if Amidamaru would recover. He was attempting to cheer the miserable spirit up with positive thinking. Logic told him that the ghost must recover. What else could he do, die? Un die? Re die? There was the predicament.  
  
The dead couldn't get die. It was one of the principles of being, well, _dead_. So why was Amidamaru ill, for want of a better word? Yoh wasn't even sure if Amidamaru was ill. It might be anything. And worse - what would happen if he didn't recover? Yoh didn't know, but he had a gut feeling that it wouldn't be good. 


	2. The Mystery Deepens

There was a sound behind Yoh and he looked round, slightly startled, but it was only Manta who was bringing out some fresh tea. The short boy looked round Yoh to where Amidamaru was now floating about an inch off the ground.  
  
"Hey..." He began uncertainly. "What's wrong with Amidamaru?"  
  
"I don't..." Yoh began, but he was interrupted as his guardian ghost suddenly sprang to his metaphorical feet with an inane grin on his face.  
  
"HI, Manta! There's absolutely _nothing_ wrong with Amidamaru! Not at all! No! Amidamaru is as good as he has ever felt in his death!" The young samurai was speaking as though someone had hit him hard on the head with a mallet. His voice was slightly squeaky, as though it had been sped up on a record player, and it sounded forced and unnatural.  
  
"Er... ok..." Manta inched away slightly, not at all feeling secure. Yoh looked at his friend.  
  
"Amidamaru?" He asked. Amidamaru tilted his head slightly to one side. "Since when did you start speaking in third person?"  
  
The spirit did a backflip in midair.  
  
"I dunno, Yoh, I always thought that I, y'know, spoke wossname... normally... wow, Manta, can I stroke your hair? Oh, look... a maple blossom... how strange..."  
  
"We're standing under a maple tree, Amidamaru." Yoh pointed out. He was unused to seeing his spirit with an attention span of less than three seconds. It was beginning to scare him slightly.  
  
"Hey, Amidamaru!" Manta said, having a sudden brainwave. "Why don't you go and sit on the roof for a while to calm down? Or..." he added hastily as Amidamaru gaped wide-eyed at him "play with the birds or something...?"  
  
"Yay! Birdies!"  
  
Amidamaru vanished. There was some startled tweeting from the other side of the house as both Yoh and Manta breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"What the hell is up with him?" Manta asked his friend. Faint frown lines had appeared on Yoh's young forehead.  
  
"I don't know. One minute he was fine. Then after you went in he complained of indigestion."  
  
"Indigestion?" Manta asked confusedly. "I didn't think ghosts ate."  
  
"They don't." Yoh sighed. "Which is why it's so odd. And I didn't think ghosts felt pain, either, or any type of touch, but there you go. Then he said he had a chronic headache and _then _he said he felt sick and actually would have been sick if he had eaten anything in the past six hundred years."  
  
"And then what?" The small boy asked breathlessly.  
  
"Then he just kinda keeled over backwards. I... I stroked his forehead to... get the sweat off because I... forgot he was, y'know, not solid, but he seemed to feel it. He shuddered. Like I said, he's touched me before and never reacted, even with his eyes open but this time his eyes were closed and he definitely shuddered."  
  
Manta looked at Yoh's face, but the shaman's expression was unreadable. Amidamaru's distant whoops of joy coupled with the desperate cries of some poor innocent bird rang from the distance.  
  
"I want him back to normal, Manta. I'm scared, seeing him like this. He never loses control." Yoh looked towards the rooftop, watching a startled swallow wing away towards the maple tree. Amidamaru's pale hair blew in the wind. He looked so handsome...  
  
Yoh shook his head. What, was he doing an impression of a hormonal teenage girl? Against his will, his head again turned towards the rooftop. He was just so worried...  
  
---  
  
Anna glared as Manta and Yoh both cracked up laughing at Horo Horo, who had again snuck over to their house to avoid the wrath of his rather tyrannical little sister.  
  
"Guys!" the Ainu whined. "C'mon, guys, it's not funny!"  
  
"You're right." Yoh wheezed. "It's not funny. It's damn _hilarious_!"  
  
Horo Horo joined Anna in glaring as both other boys collapsed, wracked with fits of laughter. Anna caught Horo Horo's eye and the shaman gave a sound that can only be recorded as "meep" and lay down, playing dead.  
  
Yoh slowly fell silent as Amidamaru floated in. The ghost looked tired and wan, and his eyes were downcast, almost closed. Manta, Horo Horo and Anna looked up to see why Yoh had stopped laughing.  
  
"Amidamaru?" Yoh asked quietly.  
  
"I am a fool." Amidamaru answered. "I am a blind fool and now I have a headache as a result."  
  
"Sit down, Amidamaru." Yoh said uncomfortably. "Join the conversation."  
  
Amidamaru shook his head.  
  
"I am not fit to eat at the same table as you. I have dishonoured myself and proven to you all that I am unworthy."  
  
"Nonsense." Yoh snorted, moving up so Amidamaru could join them at the table. The guardian ghost floated next to his shaman. Their arms brushed in the process. Yoh felt a disturbance in the air as Amidamaru again shuddered at the contact.  
  
"So... what was wrong earlier? It was like you were on a high or something.."  
  
"I do not know. All I can remember is the feeling of both great pain and acute sickness, and then there is a black void for a length of time, and I cannot recall anything from that void. I can assume, however, from your reactions and the fact that I seem to remember at one point sitting on the roof terrorising birds, that what happened was not good."  
  
"Au contraire, Amidamaru, it wasn't that is was "not good", more that it was disturbing. I'm not used to seeing you with an inane grin and an attention span to match Rio's."  
  
"That bad?" Amidamaru seemed quite shocked. "My apologies, I did not realise."  
  
Something in the back of Yoh's mind was struggling to break free.  
  
"It's ok, dude. No worries. Rice?" Yoh passed the bowl over to Morty, but it was intercepted on the way by Horo Horo, who emptied half the bowl in a matter of seconds. Even Anna raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Doesn't Pilica feed you?" Morty asked, amazed.  
  
"Yeah, she feeds me. With cat food. I'm amazed I'm still alive. Any more of that egg plant?"  
  
Amidamaru watched his friends stuff their faces mournfully. Yoh's eyes shifted onto Amidamaru of their own accord and he finally realised what his brain had been trying to tell him.  
  
"Amidamaru – you're flickering." He said.  
  
Indeed, the ghost was flickering in and out of focus as though he was being shown on a poor quality television.  
  
"Sorry?" He asked. Yoh watched in dismay as Amidamaru's outline grew fainter and fainter. A look of slight panic crossed the young samurai's face as he realised.  
  
"What's happening?" He asked, a tinge of hysteria in his voice. There was a sudden bright light, a sound like a gunshot and Amidamaru's desperate cry of "Nooooooo! Yoh!"  
  
Yoh opened his eyes against the light and struggled towards his friend. A freak wind had suddenly started to blow inside the house, and it was pushing Yoh away from his ghost.  
  
"Amidamaru! I'm coming!"  
  
There was one final cry of "Yooooooooooooh!" from Amidamaru and then the light cleared.  
  
Yoh looked around frantically but it was too late.  
  
Amidamaru was gone. 


	3. Stolen

Author Note: I am well aware that in the previous chapter I used the dub name "Rio" instead of his real name of "Ryu". You have my apologies. Unfortunately, as I live in England, I am stuck watching the dubbed Shaman King and have learnt the real names off the internet. So, I'm sorry about using dubs. I'll try and avoid it in the future.  
  
---  
  
Yoh had the strangest sensation that a part of his soul had been torn away from him. He was feeling empty and hollow, though he knew that he was not feeling anything at all. Was this – was this how Ren felt when Bason left him at his father's to fetch help?  
  
No. It couldn't have been. Bason had not really left Ren. Bason would _never_ leave Ren, there was a force of loyalty that the ancient warlord felt towards his Chinese master. Surely Amidamaru too felt that towards Yoh?  
  
Then the answer came clear to Yoh. He remembered Amidamaru's panicked face, his distressed cries for help. He had not gone voluntarily. He had been forced, against his will. Involuntarily. Without choice. Someone had taken Amidamaru away from the place the spirit most wanted to be in without a thought for his feelings or emotions. But who could – who _would_ do such a thing?  
  
Yoh's first thought was Ren. After all, the other shaman had expressed such an interest in Yoh's spirit when they first met, had wanted the young samurai for himself, even. But Ren had changed since then. He no longer held his father's belief that spirits were only tools. He, Amidamaru and Bason now had a private, strong friendship, and, though Yoh was not allowed in on the occasional conversation, he knew that the two ghosts were helping Ren rebuild the life that he lost under the tyranny of his youth.  
  
Ren was therefore out of the question. But who did that leave? Yoh couldn't think of anyone. Unless... unless... yes, maybe _that _was the answer!  
  
Who was obsessed with experiments on the dead? Who was always on the lookout for a guinea pig to experiment on? Who experimented on Morty in the graveyard in a tactical attempt to weaken Yoh? Who would use another tactical ploy like that to have Yoh _withdrawn_ from the tournament (as he would surely be if he did not have a guardian ghost)?  
  
Why, only someone who, like Yoh, had made it past the preliminaries. Only someone who was desperate to become Shaman King. Only someone who was cunning, twisted and evil.  
  
Only someone like Faust VIII.  
  
Yoh raised his head. There was an anger in his eyes that his friends had not seen before and they backed away slightly.  
  
"Um... Yoh?" Manta asked uncertainly. Anna glanced up, raised her eyes skyward slightly and continued what she was doing, though there was a slight shake of her shoulders. Her hair hung around her face, concealing her eyes from the others.  
  
Horo Horo and Manta, however, looked at Yoh fearfully. His eyes narrowed as he stared out of the door.  
  
"I'll kill him." He growled, fury welling up inside his chest until it threatened to overwhelm him. "I'll kill him!"  
  
"Who?" Manta asked, backing up against the wall. Yoh turned sightless eyes on the small boy, who quaked slightly under the fearsome gaze.  
  
"Faust." Asakura spat.  
  
---  
  
Amidamaru groaned and shifted slightly. There was a sense of cold compression on his back and he felt strangely heavy. Something metal chinked as he shifted again. He was aware of voices around him, though they sounded slightly distant and muffled. There was a moment's silence and then – a sudden flare of pain.  
  
His eyes snapped open.  
  
"Ouch!" He yelped as the fiery pain intensified. "Excuse me, do you mind? That's my leg and, if you hadn't noticed, I'm rather attached to it!"  
  
His voice was not how he remembered it to be. It was slightly hoarse, as though his throat was raw or he needed a drink of water.  
  
Wait – when had he last needed a drink, or felt pain? When had he been feeling anything, for that matter? And – when had he been able to be chained to the massive block of stone he was currently lying on? By all rights, as a ghost, he should be able to float right through it.  
  
"Pain receptors working fine. Sensory perceptions? Check. You know, we might actually have a success on our hands this time!" Came one voice. Amidamaru could not see the owner, but the voice sounded clinical, as though medical, and was bursting with poorly concealed joy.  
  
"Chipatama! Take away his swords!" A different voice, cold and commanding, and not at all friendly.  
  
There was a scuffle near his hips and he felt the twin blades slice the air as they were withdrawn from their holsters. He almost instinctively threw out his hand to grab them back, but with a clank of the heavy iron chains it was restrained. There was a chuckle from the cold voice.  
  
"You will not be needing these, my dear samurai." The cold voice. Amidamaru squinted in the direction it came from and saw two figures outlined. One was short, and quite dumpy. The other was tall, thin and had the air of a homicidal vulture.  
  
"The hell -" Amidamaru began angrily. The short silhouette stepped towards him.  
  
"You are the samurai Amidamaru, correct?" Amidamaru nodded curtly. "Excellent. You died 600 years ago, at the age of 24. You were killed in combat, taking a good number of your attackers with you."  
  
Amidamaru was growing impatient. He knew all this already, of course. Had not his spirit haunted Funbari Hill for the past 600 years, waiting for Mosuke?  
  
"However, using the ancient art of voodoo, we have successfully managed to reincarnate you!" The man concluded. He waited expectantly for applause, obviously of the impression that he had done Amidamaru a favour.  
  
"Baka kusojiji!" Amidamaru yelled. "I did not want to live again! I have lived my life and now I have a purpose in death! I wish to return to guiding Yoh Asakura to his true place as Shaman King! You have no right to jeopardise my duty and his chances because of your own selfishness!"  
  
The short one looked confused.  
  
"We thought we were doing you a favour. We thought you would be pleased!"  
  
"Do I _look _pleased?" Amidamaru snapped. He was fuming. How _dare_ they? How _dare_ they take him away from his friends and chain him to a stupid rock? All because of some stupid _ritual?_  
  
The short one mumbled something.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"I said that the process is irreversible."  
  
Amidamaru was momentarily speechless.  
  
"KUSO SHITE SHINEZO, BAKAYAROU!" He exploded suddenly. The man in front of him took a step back, but the other moved forward.  
  
"There, there." He said in a voice laced with something that made Amidamaru's skin prickle uncomfortably. What was it? Lust? Seductive tactics? "That's hardly language for an honourable samurai, is it?"  
  
Amidamaru glared, but the tall man smiled.  
  
"That's better, isn't it?" He cooed, teasing a strand of Amidamaru's pale hair between his fingers. Amidamaru growled as the fingertips brushed sensuously against his forehead.  
  
"Stop it." He said warningly lifting an arm to swat the annoying fly away. The heavy iron manacle on his wrist weighed him down and his breathed caught slightly as the fingers caressed his cheek. He twisted his head sideways but the chain around his neck prevented him from escaping. He snarled again, trying to get away from his tormentor.  
  
"_Stop it!_" Amidamaru blinked, for it had not been he who shouted. It was the other man, who was hurrying forwards towards the two. The fingers withdrew as the tall man pulled away from the young samurai, looking rather irritated.  
  
The two held a hurried whispered conversation before the shorter man bowed to Amidamaru.  
  
"Excuse us, sir, for we shall not be long."  
  
He hurried away from the rock, the tall man stalking after him. Amidamaru was left alone.  
  
A chill ran through him as he realised that there was an overload of feelings. He was hungry, something he had not been for 600 years. He was thirsty and tired. He was cold, he was shivering, muscles that were stiff from ill usage (ie, not being used for 6 centuries) were trembling spasmodically, both from cold and shock. He felt the effects of gravity, which had not bothered him since his death. And, most of all, he felt restrained and claustrophobic.  
  
How could people live like this? They were held down by gravity and kept at bay by solid objects. As a ghost, none of these things had bothered Amidamaru, but now he was technically alive again he realised how restrained the humans were.  
  
With there being nothing to vent his rage on, Amidamaru found his eyelids weighing closed. He yawned, something else he had not done for a while, as breathing was not compulsory when he was dead.  
  
As his eyes drifted closed for the first time in 600 years, a single subconscious sigh escaped his lips. Without him realising it, it formed into a single name.  
  
"Yoh..." 


	4. A Blackened Heart, A Sickened Mind

**Author Note: Translations for words used in the previous chapter:** "Chipatama" means "dickhead"; "baka kusojiji" is "stupid old fart"; and "kuso shite shinezo, bakayarou", roughly translated, means something like "die shitting, arsehole!".  
  
---  
  
"Faust?" Horo Horo asked. "Who the heck is Faust?"  
  
"Why would Faust have anything to do with it, Yoh?" Manta asked, running at Yoh's heels and completely ignoring Horo Horo.  
  
"Don't you remember, Manta? He'll do anything to win, anything. I'm going to get him!"  
  
"Yoh, we don't even have any proof that it _is_ Faust! And can't you walk a little slower? I'm having to jog to keep up with you!"  
  
"Hello? Am I suddenly not here? _Who's Faust_?" Horo asked, getting increasingly annoyed. Yoh strode on.  
  
"What do I need proof for, Manta, of course it's Faust. Who else would do such a thing?"  
  
"Well, gee, Yoh, I can't think of anyone offhand but I'm sure it's not Faust."  
  
"Ok, you two." Horo had somehow managed to slip in front of Yoh and Manta and was now blocking their way. "You don't get past until you answer me. Who the hell is Faust?"  
  
"Oh," Yoh waved a dismissive hand, "Boneyard sorcerer. Blond hair. Purple lipstick. Acts gay. Fancies a skeleton. Schizos if you insult said skeleton."  
  
"Oh, Necromancer dude?" the Ainu asked. "Didn't you hear? He was hospitalised after his last match. Apparently it was pretty intense. They say he's been unconscious for four days."  
  
Yoh stopped dead.  
  
"Four days?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Then that means..."  
  
"... he can't have done it, Yoh, I _told_ you! We've got proof it isn't Faust, unless Faust is somehow using mind control, but if he's unconscious..." Manta babbled excitedly.  
  
"And he's not a psychic anyway, he's a Necromancer. Well, crud!"  
  
"Hmm. Yoh, was there any reason for that insult or was it just a random cuss?" Horo asked.  
  
"Of course there was a reason for it, nithead. The reason is that now I have no leads to Amidamaru and I can't tell where the hell he is and if I don't have my guardian ghost back, then I'll have to drop out of the Shaman Tournament!" _And I'm so worried about him – what if something bad is happening to him?_ Asakura added silently.  
  
"... oh." The Ainu seemed to finally understand Yoh's predicament. "I didn't realise it was that... _serious_."  
  
"Well, how serious would it be? I can't just saunter down to the graveyard and ask the spirits if they want to take Amidamaru's place!"  
  
"Why the hell not?"  
  
"Because Amidamaru _killed_ most of them!"  
  
There was silence for a while as Horo Horo digested the information. Manta checked his watch.  
  
"Hey, guys, it's pretty late. Shouldn't we be turning in?" He asked. Yoh whirled round.  
  
"What? Did I hear you right, man? Coz I thought you just said that we should go to sleep while Amidamaru's in danger or worse!"  
  
"I did, Yoh." Manta insisted. "Remember that time when we all felt that Ren was in trouble? I think that was because we'd all just connected with him. But you're the only one who really connects with Amidamaru apart from Ren and Bason, who aren't here, so if you go to sleep you might find out where he is!"  
  
Yoh looked doubtful.  
  
"Hmm... worth a try, I suppose, though I probably won't be able to get to sleep..."  
  
"Don't worry." Horo ginned. "If you're having trouble, I'll just hit you with a mallet."  
  
Yoh's mouth made the infamous "S" shape of uncertainty.  
  
"Er... thanks, I think."  
  
---  
  
Amidamaru slowly came back to the land of the conscious. His head was swimming and it was a little while before he realised he was no longer lying on the stone slab. He was now sitting slumped against a wall in what looked like a normal cellar, except for the bars on the window and – was that a riding crop hanging up on the far wall?  
  
He was still chained, though the manacles around his neck and ankles had been removed and now only those on his wrists secured him to the wall. He chinked them together gently and the sound hung on the cold, dank air of his prison.  
  
His throat was raw and every swallow grated against it. He was hungry and thirsty, but his sleep had taken away his fatigue. He was still feeling slightly overwhelmed by the rush of sensations, both complex and simple, that were part of being alive.  
  
There were heavy footsteps from the other side of the door. The young samurai dragged his head towards the sound as there was a clatter of metal and the barrier of wrought iron swung inwards. The tall, sinister man from earlier sauntered in.  
  
"My dear samurai!" He said, seeing Amidamaru watching him. "Awake at last? And how was your sleep? You are not too uncomfortable, I hope?"  
  
Amidamaru tried to speak but could only manage a hoarse, croaking sound as the dryness in his throat destroyed his coherency. His captor held a beaker of water to the young man's lips and he drank greedily.  
  
"Why?" He asked after pushing the beaker away. "Why have you done this?"  
  
There was a pause as the sneering figure before him considered the point.  
  
"Yokiama did it purely to see if the ancient art of voodoo would still work. Yoki was a fool. He wanted and needed someone else to help him with the ritual. My knowledge was far more expansive than his and I volunteered, purely for my own reasons, you understand."  
  
Amidamaru frowned in confusion.  
  
"I had seen the flaws in the ritual, you see. No one can fully incarnate the dead. You, as you are now, are not truly alive. And, not being truly alive, you cannot truly die. You will not age, nor will you die no matter how extensive or serious an illness or injury may be. It is a perfect opportunity."  
  
"For what?" Amidamaru growled, his eyebrows knitting together in indignation at a speed that would have made Michael Jordan piss his pants.  
  
"Yoki disagreed, of course." The other man continued, casually ignoring Amidamaru. "But Yoki was a fool and no longer important to my needs. He died as easily as a gnat, though disposing of him was probably messier than killing a small flying insect."  
  
Amidamaru's eyes widened in horror. This man was standing in front of him calmly admitting to murdering the short dumpy man that was his companion. Even Amidamaru, who was a seasoned killer, could not have done that with the calmness exhibited by his captor.  
  
"You have not answered my question." He swallowed. "Why have you done this to me?"  
  
"Well... that is a difficult question to answer merely because I am having trouble wording the answer. Let me just say that you... _fascinate_ me. I was _most _displeased when our earlier interchange was interrupted."  
  
Amidamaru turned his head away from the taunting man above him, knowing just what interchange was being referred to.  
  
"I would love so much for us to complete what was earlier left unfinished."  
  
"Do not touch me!" Amidamaru snapped. There was a cold laugh from above which sent involuntary shivers down the samurai's spine.  
  
"You would rather that I leave you here, without food or water, for the rest of eternity? You would not die, oh no. You would go through the normal processes of starvation and dehydration, your body would rot away but you would be alive to experience it... imagine how painful it must be to have maggots hatch in festering open wounds that have been caused by the ants tearing away chunks of your dead flesh..."  
  
"_Enough!_" Amidamaru cried suddenly. He was beginning to feel sickened... dying was one thing, but being alive to experience it... and surely that was an oxymoron?... he shuddered slightly, causing the chains to ring together gently.  
  
He saw the man above him smile frostily and knew that he had now no choice. Whatever this cold-hearted monster had in store for him, he would have to last it out and hope that someone would eventually find him.  
  
"You and I can have fun, you know..." Amidamaru flinched as the words were hissed right next to his ear. The knowledge of being in such close proximity with a murderer was making him feel distinctly uncomfortable.  
  
The man drew away, leaving Amidamaru alone for a moment. The young samurai visibly sagged, he had not realised how tense he had been, or that he had been holding his breath until lack of oxygen forced him to exhale deeply. He looked around wildly for his tormentor, the murky blackness of the cell clouding over his vision.  
  
There was a long pause and then a disturbance in the air behind him and a noise that could only be described as "_fwzip_"  
  
Amidamaru looked round to see the riding crop descending at full speed towards his exposed back. 


	5. Desperation

Author Note: Cookies to you guys who spot my trademark phrase in this chapter!   
  
---  
  
Amidamaru inhaled sharply in pain as he came round. It seemed that every nerve ending in his recently restored body was on fire, agonising lances shot through every muscle. He whimpered slightly.  
  
There was a cold chuckle from somewhere above him. It was not a pleasant noise.  
  
"My apologies, samurai, it appears I was too rough on you first time round. I forgot that you have not had to deal with pain for the past few hundred years; it must have come as quite a shock to you."  
  
Amidamaru's swimming vision focused on an all too familiar figure, who was idly examining the tip of the riding crop.  
  
"Admittedly, it was... exhilarating, listening to your vocal reactions to my strikes, even if they were a little... loud..."  
  
"Bas...tard..." The young samurai panted. Sweat beaded on his forehead and a little rivulet of blood from somewhere under his hairline trickled uncomfortably down his cheek. His back felt as though it was burning up, both stinging and aching at the same time.  
  
"Insulting me might not be your wisest move, Amidamaru, as I am the one with the whip and you are the one chained helplessly at my feet. Do try and think before you open your mouth, man." The voodoo bit something off the end of the leather crop and spat it out on the floor.  
  
There was a long ragged moan drawn out from Amidamaru as the tip of the whip prodded him painfully in the chest and he was thrown onto his injured back. He bit back a cry of agony as he was kicked viciously in the ribs.  
  
"As it lies," his attacker snarled, "I have business to attend to upstairs, but I will return as soon as I can to attend to this business!"  
  
With a violent punch, he slammed Amidamaru's head back into the wall. Stars exploded in front of the young samurai's eyes as his skull came into contact with a jagged rock. He felt his own blood begin to spill from the fresh wound and his head lolled to one side as the shadowed man stalked out of the cell, laughing.  
  
---  
  
As Yoh had expected, he did not sleep well. It was a while before he actually fell asleep, as he lay awake for long past midnight, watching the stars and wondering what had happened to Amidamaru.  
  
At last, however, sheer fatigue took over and he fell into an uneasy sleep, his dreams haunted by visions of his friend's panicked face as he had begged Yoh to help him.  
  
Then the dreamscape changed into the basement of the Tao castle, the place Yoh knew all too well. It was where Ren and Jun had been imprisoned for a few days under the wrath of their father, En.  
  
Ren was there, sitting on a block of stone. There was a very dismal, very dead looking skeleton next to him. Bason was hovering before his face, in spirit form. The two were conversing and, though Yoh was nowhere near them, he could hear every word.  
  
"Did you feel it, Bason? It was like being hit in the heart with an iron bar..." Ren was saying quietly.  
  
"Yes, Master Ren. I felt it. I fear Amidamaru is in trouble."  
  
"Amidamaru? How could he be in trouble? He and Yoh are an excellent team, where one goes the other follows no matter what."  
  
"I fear Amidamaru is in a place where Yoh cannot follow." Bason's echoing voice sounded heavy and sad.  
  
"Then we must help him!" Determination from Ren.  
  
"I feel... I know where he is, Master."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"I think he is in the –"  
  
The dream was suddenly cut of as Horo Horo, who was lying in the bed next to Yoh, gave a loud snore which woke Yoh up. The shaman cursed silently, glaring at the Ainu's clueless form.  
  
He knew that he would not sleep again and decided to go for a walk. He dressed as quickly as he could, it being cold out, and set off down the street at a brisk stride.  
  
Why had Horo chosen that minute to snore? If he had managed to restrain himself for a second later then Yoh might have found out where Amidamaru was and that matters more to me than anything else in the world at the moment... the young shaman thought sadly.  
  
He continued down the street and suddenly turned left down an alley he had never noticed before. Where was he going? His legs were acting of their own accord and he could not seem to stop them.. what was happening?  
  
He lurched left and right down a network of alleys, seemingly unable to stop his own legs from taking him where they pleased. When he at last stopped, he was in a part of the city he had never known of before, standing outside the front door of a rundown old house. There was a strange, warm feeling in his chest that he had not felt since Amidamaru's disappearance.  
  
He decided to risk it. After all, could this really be the house...? He tried the front door – excellent, it wasn't locked. He slipped in but before he could close the door quietly, the wind caught it, sending it slamming home.  
  
His breath caught as he heard quick footsteps approaching and he hurled himself behind the umbrella stand just in time; a tall, thin man had come to check on the door, complaining to himself about the wind.  
  
Yoh slipped past the man and padded silently through the living room and into the hall. There were two flights of stairs, one that went up and one that descended into what was most likely the basement. Yoh wasn't sure which one to choose.  
  
The quick footsteps behind him, however, alerted him to the danger he was in and he quickly dived down the stairs that lead to the basement, breathing a silent sigh of relief as the man again walked straight past him.  
  
He looked round to see a heavy iron door. He tried it. It was locked. His suspicions were aroused; who put an iron door on a basement? He studied the lock. It was pretty simple and, with the help of his spirit sword (which felt strangely empty without Amidamaru's presence) he was able to slide the lock upwards.  
  
The door swung slowly open, revealing a world of almost total blackness, dimly lit by moonlight streaming through a barred window.  
  
Yoh took a deep breath and stepped inside. 


	6. Lost and Found

Yoh peered in to the murky blackness of the cell. He pushed the door closed in case the owner of the house walked past again. It wouldn't be good if he were caught breaking and entering.  
  
There was a faint noise from the depths of the room; it sounded like the collision of metal on stone.  
  
"Who's there?" He asked tentatively, unable to keep his voice from shaking somewhat.  
  
"Yoh?" A hoarse voice came from the darkness. Though Yoh did not recognise it, a niggling feeling deep down inside him told him that he knew its owner.  
  
"Who is it?" He asked again, venturing further into the dungeon. There was a sound that could either have been a chuckle or a sob.  
  
"Yoh, it's me..."   
  
As Yoh took another step forward, a figure slumped against the wall came into view, illuminated by the half-light of the moon. Yoh's eyes widened in shock and he straightened up slightly and gave a cry, as though he had been struck in the face.  
  
"_Amidamaru_?"  
  
It was indeed Amidamaru, though apart from the familiar hair and clothing, Yoh could hardly recognise him. The young shaman sprinted over to his friend, instantly dropping to his knees by the samurai's side.  
  
"What – what _happened_?"  
  
Yoh placed his hands over Amidamaru's and almost gasped out loud. It wasn't the fact that his friend's hands were stone cold, but that they were solid!  
  
"You're... you're solid! What's going on?"  
  
Asakura slid his hands from Amidamaru's hands up the samurai's arms. The wrist guards were gone and in their place were heavy iron shackles with lengths of chain securing Amidamaru to the wall.  
  
"You're _chained_!"  
  
"Yoh..." The samurai's voice was almost a whisper, as though it hurt him to speak. "You came for me...  
  
"I wouldn't just leave you, mate, you know that!"  
  
And, for the first time in almost 24 hours, Amidamaru smiled. He shifted sideways a little to get comfortable and his face was thrown into sharp relief by the moonlight. Yoh clapped a hand over his mouth.  
  
His friend's face was not carefree and youthful as he remembered it. There was blood crusted on his brow, with a blood track down one cheek where it had overflowed. His cheeks, once smooth and handsome, were roughened with stubble and sunken. There were fatigue bags under his eyes.  
  
Yoh looked him over fully. The soft material of his robes was torn in several places and he looked thin, worn and emaciated.  
  
"Oh, Amidamaru..." He murmured, stroking the samurai's hair comfortingly. "What have they done to you?"  
  
There was a quiet exclamation from Amidamaru. Yoh frowned and gingerly started examining his friend's head, withdrawing when he heard the other's inhalation of breath and felt him flinch.  
  
There was something on his hand, hot and slightly sticky. Yoh cautiously brought it up to his nose and sniffed it.  
  
"Blood!" He gasped. "Amidamaru, you're hurt! What happened?"  
  
"I... hit my head against the wall accidentally..." Amidmaru replied, a little too quickly. Yoh raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Rocks bruise and that's a pretty nasty cut there."  
  
"It was a sharp rock."  
  
Yoh gave up. There was a hoarse, grating sound and it took him a little while to realise that Amidamaru was crying.  
  
"Oh, Yoh... I was so worried... I thought..." the samurai sobbed into Yoh's jacket. Yoh, who hadn't been in a situation like this before, was by no means sure of himself, or what to do. He gently pulled the pale-haired man into a hug, patting his back soothingly.  
  
Amidamaru suddenly arched his back, screaming in pain. Yoh drew away fearfully as the other man writhed and bent double, panting. The young shaman saw, quite clearly, through rips in the soft material, several red weals and some large purple bruises. Some areas of the skin were mangled, torn and bloody.  
  
_Rocks never did that,_ Yoh thought to himself.  
  
Amidamaru looked up, a single tear making its lonesome way down his cheek.  
  
"I'm so sorry..." Yoh began. The samurai managed a strained smile, which looked as though it was taking a lot of effort.  
  
"It – doesn't matter. You didn't know..." He grunted  
  
"So..." Yoh swallowed. "Care to tell me what really did hurt you?"  
  
Amidamaru looked down at the floor as though ashamed.  
  
"I was telling the truth about the rock hitting my head." He began quietly. "But I guess I can't hide the fact that rocks didn't do everything else...?"  
  
"Unless rocks are staging a mass takeover and chained you to the wall and made you solid?" Yoh said jokingly, but his heart was heavy on the inside. Amidamaru managed a weak smile.  
  
"No. It was –"  
  
He broke off suddenly, looking fearfully at the door, which was swinging slowly open. Both he and Yoh froze as the silhouette of the tall man began to appear in the light of the doorway.  
  
There was a curse as the ringing of a distant telephone went off and the man disappeared, slamming the door behind him. Amidamaru turned a worried face towards Yoh.  
  
"Yoh, please tell me you didn't come alone..." He begged. Yoh smiled apologetically.  
  
"Um... I didn't come alone?" He said.  
  
"You came alone, didn't you?"  
  
"Yeah..." Yoh looked round hesitantly. The panic in his friend's voice was beginning to unnerve him. "That's not a good thing, is it?"  
  
"No." Amidamaru sighed. "Definitely not."  
  
The footsteps returned again. Amidamaru tensed.  
  
"Quick!" He hissed. "Under my cloak!" He indicated the voluminous white cloak that covered his black robes.  
  
Yoh scurried underneath just in time; the heavy iron door swung open and the voodoo strode into the cell, holding a leather collar and leash in one hand and swishing the riding crop with the other. Though Yoh could not see who had just entered, he could feel Amidamaru's trembling. The young shaman gently stoked the samurai's back through his robes to calm him down a little.  
  
A cold sweat had broken out on Amidamaru's forehead and he tried to flinch away as the sinister man's mouth nibbled the soft skin of his earlobe. The samurai closed his eyes, imagining himself to be anywhere but where he was. The movements of Yoh's hands across his lower back was only a small comfort with his tormentor's hot breath rasping in his ear.  
  
The cold, cruel lips moved down Amidamaru's jaw line, nibbling his lower lip and then brushing against the samurai's mouth. Amidamaru cringed away. Yoh's hand had stopped rubbing his back and he knew, somewhere in the subconscious of his mind, that his friend was watching. _Please, Yoh... don't watch... I don't want you to watch... I don't want you to see this... please don't watch...  
_  
There was a small intake of breath from Yoh as the voodoo moved down to Amidamaru's shoulder, biting the samurai just below the back of the neck. Amidamaru whimpered uncomfortably, his eyes screwed shut.  
  
Yoh watched the stranger teasing and torturing his friend and felt a hot rage bubbling up inside him. His eyes followed the progress of the bites, which were leaving a trail of red marks down Amidamaru's bare chest. Every time a new place was bitten, a small cry would emit from Amidamaru. Yoh was both angry and upset. Why couldn't they just leave his friend alone?  
  
The dark man drew away, raising his right arm. Yoh's eyes followed the progress of the whip right until it lashed across Amidamaru's exposed flesh. The samurai yelped and, with a sickening knotted feeling in his stomach, Yoh realised he knew where the wounds on Amidamaru's back had come from.  
  
Before he knew what he was doing, he had flung himself free of the samurai's cloak, snarling and panting.  
  
"Leave him alone!" He screamed at the man, who had straightened up in shock. There were tears of anger and feeling for Amidamaru's pain in the young shaman's eyes. "Just leave him alone!" 


	7. Revealed Sufferings and Hidden Truths

"This is certainly unexpected." The voodoo was quick to get over his shock, pulling away from Amidamaru and grabbing Yoh's wrist painfully tight. "I think that I shall enjoy this even more..."  
  
"Don't touch him!" Amidamaru cried. All the action around him froze, both Yoh and the voodoo looking at him.  
  
"Look, I'll let you... I'll let you..." the samurai swallowed. "Do what you want with me. Just don't touch Yoh."  
  
"Amidamaru!" Yoh hissed. "Don't!"  
  
Amidamaru turned his bloodstained face onto Yoh's  
  
"Yoh, you _have_ to become Shaman King. I don't care what happens to me just as long as you stay in the tournament!"  
  
"But _I_ care what happens to you..." Yoh whispered under his breath. The voodoo was looking from one prisoner to the other.  
  
"As much as I enjoy this sentimental goodbye," He purred at last, releasing Yoh and cupping Amidamaru's chin with one hand, "I must now take advantage of the opportunity that I have just been given."  
  
Amidamaru slumped backward, limp and meek, his eyes locked with Yoh's as they had a silent conversation, though neither could tell what the other was thinking.  
  
_Don't you understand? You_ have _to become Shaman King. If it means me sacrificing everything, so be it. I don't care.  
_  
Yoh stared back in the brief moments before the voodoo would make his move.  
  
_I don't want him to hurt you – I care about you too much...  
_  
Yoh gasped and screwed his eyes shut as the voodoo thrust his tongue into Amidamaru's unresisting mouth. A strangled sob escaped the pale haired warrior, but no other sound or movement emanated from his now docile form.  
  
There was an inhalation of breath from Amidamaru and Yoh saw, around the voodoo, a trickle of blood emerge from the side of the samurai's mouth. The voodoo drew away, grinning evilly. Amidamaru's blood stained his teeth and he licked it off gloatingly, staring hungrily at Yoh.  
  
"As much as I love having my own personal slave to play with," He gave Amidamaru a powerful shove, sending the samurai sprawling sideways. Amidamaru bit his lip as day old whip lacerations flared into life again. The voodoo continued speaking.  
  
"I cannot resist the idea of the boy." He finished in almost a whisper, advancing towards Yoh. Yoh backed up into the wall and Amidamaru looked up in despair. The voodoo was almost upon the young shaman when –  
  
"Stop!" Amidamaru cried, struggling into a sitting position. "We had a deal!"  
  
"Yes, my samurai friend," the voodoo rasped, turning away from Yoh. "There was a deal. I got bored with it, so I am changing the rules."  
  
There was a rattle of chains as Amidamaru threw himself forwards, the restraining fetters holding him back by the wrists. He strained against them, trying to get at the voodoo, who laughed and forced the samurai onto his knees with a single shove.  
  
"You cannot stop me." He said simply.  
  
He turned back to Yoh, a strange hungry light in his eyes.  
  
"I'll fight you."  
  
Amidamaru's bland, expressionless statement caused the voodoo to freeze in his tracks.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"I'll fight you." The samurai repeated in the same tone of voice.  
  
"_You'll_ fight _me_ for _him_?" The voodoo asked incredulously. Then, when Amidamaru nodded, he threw back his head and laughed.  
  
"You may laugh, but I'm not joking." Amidamaru continued. Yoh could see the steely glint in his friend's eyes and knew that the voodoo had gone too far. Amidamaru did not care about what happened to himself, but now something had threatened Yoh...  
  
"Very well, samurai."  
  
The voodoo produced a key from his trouser pocket and unlocked the shackles on Amidamaru's wrists. Immediately the samurai whipped his hand around the voodoo's throat. The sinister man merely laughed and threw Amidamaru from him. The young warrior hit the wall with a sickening crunch and slid down like a rag doll.  
  
"Run, Yoh.." He coughed up blood as he spoke. "Run... get away... I'll hold him off..."  
  
"I won't leave without you!" Yoh shouted, hurling himself at the voodoo and latching on to the man's back. With a roar, the voodoo dragged Yoh over his shoulder and threw him on the floor. Yoh rolled away, sobbing for breath, completely winded. The young shaman struggled to his feet, the image of Amidamaru's torn body flashing in front of his eyes as though someone had pasted a picture there.  
  
Before he could attack again, however, the voodoo had thrust him backwards, trapping him against the wall. Amidamaru let out a muted cry of anger and helplessness as their captor advanced on Yoh once again.  
  
There was the sudden, distant ringing of a doorbell. The voodoo swore quite graphically, released his hold on Yoh and dragged Amidamaru's limp form back to the shackles, fastening them on the samurai's wrists once again before slamming out of the door. After his quick footsteps had receded, Yoh crawled over to his friend.  
  
"Amidamaru, are you all right?" He asked, frantically checking for a pulse. There was a forced chuckle.  
  
"I'm fine..."  
  
"That was so brave of you, standing up for me like you did." The young shaman found Amidamaru's hand and held it, massaging life and warmth back into the extremity.  
  
"It was not bravery." The samurai coughed, blood running in tiny streams from his mouth. There was self-disgust in his voice. "I have been informed by the voodoo that I cannot die. I was therefore making no sacrifices when standing up for you."  
  
"You were." Yoh insisted, squeezing his friend's hand to emphasize his words. "It takes a lot more bravery to face pain than death. If he can't kill you then you'll feel even more pain because you'll still be hurting after the point a mortal would have died, so... you were very brave..."  
  
They fell silent for a while; the only sound came from Amidamaru's hoarse, laboured breathing. Then –  
  
"He's coming back..." Yoh said, listening intently to the footsteps outside the basement door. His heart sank as he glanced back at Amidamaru, who was resting his head against the wall.  
  
The door burst open and the voodoo again came back in. He was carrying something; it looked like a large tray of food and water. Yoh's mouth dropped open in surprise. The voodoo was walking hastily, as though rushing; his face was pale and he looked distinctly uncomfortable.  
  
"I must leave for a few days," He informed them, checking the manacles on Amidamaru's wrist. "You will find there is sufficient food."  
  
"If you're leaving, why don't you just kill us?" Yoh asked angrily. The voodoo smiled coldly.  
  
"It is true I want you as my toys, but I do not want you dead. Yet." He turned on his heel and prowled out of the room, though the usual spring in his step was missing. Yoh and Amidamaru were left alone in the room.  
  
Yoh hauled himself over to the tray and carried it back to Amidamaru, whipping off the thin rag that covered it, revealing a loaf of bread, a large bowl of thin soup and several beakers of water.  
  
"How long did he say this has to last? Three days?" He tore open the bread packet and dipped a slice into the soup, eating it.  
  
"Disgusting." He muttered, pulling a face. Amidamaru smiled weakly. "Want some?"  
  
The young samurai shook his head.  
  
"No, thank you. I am not hungry."  
  
"Really? You _look_ hungry."  
  
"And _you_ look tired." Amidamaru countered. "I doubt you had much sleep before you came here?" His point was punctuated by Yoh yawning.  
  
"You're right. I'm hammered." Yoh grinned lopsidedly at Amidamaru. "You don't mind if I go to sleep?"  
  
"Not at all."  
  
Yoh curled up in a tight ball to fend away the cold that seemed to reside in the stone room. Amidamaru watched him for awhile until he was sure the young shaman was fast asleep, Then he turned his head away and sighed heavily.  
  
He could not sleep. He could hardly even close his eyes, the images that flashed in front of them when they were closed were so vivid... so disturbing... a perfect reminder of what the voodoo had done to him before Yoh had arrived...  
  
He didn't want Yoh to know what had been done to him, how he had been treated. He didn't want Yoh to put himself in danger because of him. _Well_, he thought grimly, _Yoh already has put himself in danger because of me. He came to rescue me. Now he's in even more danger than he could possibly imagine...  
_  
The samurai debated with himself whether to tell Yoh what to expect when the voodoo returned, but... no. It would be too mean. They would have to face the consequences when their tormentor returned, and Amidamaru silently vowed that no harm would come to Yoh while he was still conscious and able to prevent it. _Some guardian ghost I'm turning out to be..._ he thought bitterly.  
  
His attention was drawn back to Yoh as the boy gave a violent shudder. Amidamaru laid a hand on his friend's cheek. _He's freezing..._  
  
Amidamaru looked around in a sudden panic. Yoh was freezing, he'd surely catch something if he wasn't warmed up... after all the samurai had done that day to protect Yoh, he was damned if he was going to let the shaman die of something as trivial as hypothermia.  
  
But how was he going to warm the boy up? He couldn't take off his cloak because of the chains, and his own bare arms and chest were freezing too... his chest? Oh, Christ... he couldn't, Yoh would kill him... but if it was the only way...?  
  
Hesitantly, he reached out and grasped Yoh's arm, pulling the smaller boy to his chest and slowly wrapping both muscular arms around the small form. Yoh muttered something in his sleep and stirred, burying his head further into Amidamaru's strong torso. The samurai smiled gently.  
  
He felt as though the claw that was gripping his heart had loosened slightly. He had wanted this for so long without realising it, just to hold Yoh in his arms. He had always thought it to be a possibility, Yoh and Anna were engaged and he, of course, was dead. He just went straight through Yoh. But now...  
  
He sighed again, though this time it was not with pain or depression, but with contentment. Yoh was warming up and he was too, though from the inside. It was a pleasant feeling, as though he had just drunk a cup of hot chocolate. He had almost forgotten his own pain, that inflicted on him before Yoh's arrival.  
  
All that mattered now was Yoh. How could his feelings for the shaman have become so strong without him realising? He knew that he had at one time, while he was still a spirit, felt a desire for something, but he a cast it aside, repressed it, locked it away in his heart. Now he knew what it was he desired.  
  
Surely this could not last. Surely Yoh would prefer Anna to him. Why would he choose a ragged, jaded 600 year dead samurai when he could have a pretty, albeit tyrannical, girl of his own age? Amidamaru shook his head slowly, eyes never leaving Yoh. He would make the most of the time they were sharing together now and face Yoh's wrath in the morning.  
  
Amidamaru fell into a shallow, haunted sleep, Yoh cuddled up in his arms. 


	8. Freedom!

Yoh began to wake up late the next morning. He was back at home, in bed. His pillow was warm and comfortable and he snuggled into it a bit more. The pillow murmured something and moved. Hold on, that wasn't right... er...  
  
Yoh's eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly, blinking the remains of sleep out of his eyes. He realised that he was not in his bed at all, but still in the stone cell, which was now lit by sunlight streaming through the barred window. Looking round, he realised that what he thought had been a pillow was actually Amimdamaru, who was clutching him tightly, keeping him warm. The samurai was still fast asleep.  
  
Yoh had never seen his friend look so carefree, or so beautiful. Heck, Yoh had never seen his friend _sleep_ before. Every pain line in the older man's face had gone, he looked totally relaxed. The young shaman stared at Amidamaru for a while, knowing that he would not get another chance. He had given up trying to suppress the need to have Amidamaru hold him, and now it was actually happening he felt like a huge load had been removed from his shoulders.  
  
Of course, when Amidamaru woke up, Yoh would have to pretend that this never happened. Why would the brave young samurai want to be with _him_, an untrained, lazy shaman? Of course he would want to go off with some long dead spiritual female. Wouldn't he...?  
  
Yoh reached up to brush a stray lock of pale hair from his friend's face and Amidamaru woke with a start. Yoh withdrew his hand quickly as Amidamaru yawned, blinked sleepily and stretched as much as he could with the restricting chains still binding his wrists. The young samurai's breath caught as agonising pains shot from several wounds that were jolted in the progress.  
  
"Morning, Amidamaru." Yoh said in a falsely cheerful voice. "Breakfast?" He gestured toward the stale bread and thin soup.  
  
"No thanks, Yoh." Amidamaru gasped. Yoh frowned.  
  
"I know you said that you can't die, but don't you think you should eat something? I mean, you can still technically starve, can't you?"  
  
"I don't think I can manage eating yet... I may have some... internal injuries..." The samurai panted. Yoh could see from the sudden closed expression on Amidamaru's face that he would learn no more about why the other man was not eating, so he wisely dropped the subject and passed his friend a beaker of water.  
  
Amidamaru drained the beaker greedily, his throat dry with dehydration. He smiled his thanks as he passed the empty cup back to Yoh. The young shaman placed it back on the tray and stared at it for a moment before rising and stretching.  
  
"Where are you going?" Amidamaru asked.  
  
"Stretch my legs." Yoh mumbled in reply. The samurai smiled ruefully, looking sadly down at the fetters that attached him to the wall. He longed to stand up properly... more than anything, he longed to be free... to leave this place of carnage and torture...  
  
"Hey – Amidamaru, look!" Yoh called. Amidamaru raised his head slowly, warily. Yoh beckoned frantically in the direction he had suddenly come running back from.  
  
"What is it, Yoh?" The samurai's voice was tense. If anything threatened Yoh... well, he would do his best to protect his friend but he knew that he would not last for long.  
  
"A door!" The young shaman panted. "On the other side of the basement!"  
  
"Are you sure?" Amidamaru asked sharply, suddenly alert.  
  
"As plain as the blood on your face, buddy." Yoh shook his head as though trying to clear it. "There's a door there. Wooden, rotted but quite strong."  
  
Amidamaru looked down at the floor again.  
  
"You would not be able to open it." He said expressionlessly, masking his disappointment. It did not matter to him if he were left behind, as long as Yoh got out...  
  
"I know, but... who the hell has a back door to their _basement_?" The young shaman asked incredulously. Amidamaru shrugged. He was no expert on basements and Yoh might as well have been talking about computers and HTML code (whatever the hell _that_ was). Amidamaru understood none of it. He had been dead for 600 years, he didn't _need_ to understand... now, though, he would have to make an effort... presuming he got out...  
  
"Yoh, it doesn't make a difference to you." He said, his voice laced with the disappointment he felt. "You cannot open the door in the state you are in."  
  
"I wouldn't leave without you anyway, Amidamaru." Yoh replied defiantly. Amidamaru shook his head.  
  
"Don't be foolish, Yoh, please. If the situation arises... you will have to flee and leave me here."  
  
"Never."  
  
Amidamaru raised his eyes skyward in despair.  
  
"Yoh, I can't move. I'm attached to the wall, remember? And I will _not_ let him touch you!" _especially not the way he touched me..._ The young samurai shuddered involuntarily.  
  
They stared at each other angrily, stuck in a conversational deadlock.  
  
"Ah, what's the point arguing?" Yoh waved his hand dismissively and looked away. "It's not as though it will happen. Face it, Amidamaru. We're stuck in here."  
  
_That's what I am afraid of._ The samurai closed his eyes and swallowed. _I will not let him do to you what he's done to me, Yoh.  
_  
Yoh's eyelids drooped. He flopped down next to Amidamaru, who looked up with some levels of anxiety.  
  
"Are you alright, Yoh?"  
  
"Just feel a little dizzy, that's all." Yoh's head sank into the soft, bloodstained material of Amidamaru's once-white robe. Amidamaru watched him worriedly.  
  
He did _not_ need Yoh falling ill.  
  
---  
  
The food supply had dwindled down almost in to non-existence. Amidamaru had lost count of the number of days he and Yoh had been imprisoned. His external injuries were not healing as he would have liked them to; they were still open, occasionally oozing blood.  
  
Yoh was faring much better than he. It seemed the shaman had come down with a slight fever, but he was well on the road to recovery. But it was not the illness that Amidamaru worried about most.  
  
It was the return of their captor that scared him. The day that the voodoo came back could not be far away. The food was almost gone, that in itself was not a good sign. In the past few days, Amidamaru had eaten little and he knew that he would only last for a few minutes if it came to a full out fight for Yoh.  
  
There were footsteps outside the door. Amidamaru tensed, clutching Yoh closer to him. The chains rattled ominously.  
  
The footsteps outside the door stopped and there was a sudden silence, followed by some whispering. Then, all at once, the door exploded in a flash of light.  
  
Amidamaru threw one arm up to shield his eyes while the other held Yoh protectively. The blinding light cleared. There was a silhouette of a boy about Yoh's height... a boy with his hair worn in a single spike... a boy with a Kwan Dao.  
  
"Ren!" Amidamaru gasped in shock, his voice hoarse with mistreatment. "Ren, Bason! Over here!"  
  
Tao Ren and his spirit, the Chinese warlord Bason, looked over at the semi- conscious samurai who was holding his shaman protectively in his arms. Yoh stirred.  
  
"Oh, hey Ren... welcome to the party..." he yawned sleepily. Ren paused, his Kwan Dao half raised, as Yoh rose, stretched and walked over to the middle of the room.  
  
"Stretch out your arms." The Chinese shaman ordered Amidamaru, who complied silently. With a single downward swipe, Ren sheared away the shackles at the wall. Amidamaru was left with a broken length of chain swinging from the manacle on each wrist. He was free – _free!_  
  
Yoh was laughing. Laughing with pure, untainted happiness. The word resonated through his mind. _Freedom._ They were free! The voodoo could not attack Amidamaru any more, they could go home!  
  
"_Will_ you get a grip on yourself?" Ren hissed. Yoh fell silent and looked up at Amidamaru, who was being inspected by a tearful Bason. The Chinese spirit was running his spectral hands over Amidamaru's chest, giving a quiet sob every time they passed over a wound or passed straight through the samurai. Bason had not expected his friend to be alive and solid.  
  
Then – footsteps! Upstairs! Amidamaru looked around, fear written on his face. The voodoo had returned! And, by the sounds of it, he was heading down into the basement!  
  
"This way!" Yoh hissed, pointing towards the other door he had found so many days before. Ren and Bason blasted it open and Yoh dashed through after them, Amidamaru bringing up the rear. The samurai could hear the voodoo's angry shouts behind him. Glancing back, he saw the other man wildly swinging an axe.  
  
They were haring down a long, underground corridor, Ren blasting obstacles out of the way. Yoh stopped to wait for Amidamaru, who caught up with him, staggering terribly.  
  
"Amidamaru!" Yoh panted "You're limping!"  
  
"It is an old wound!" The samurai spat, embarrassed that he had shown a weakness.  
  
"Old wounds can still hurt!" Yoh snapped, and Amidamaru saw the glistening in his friend's eyes as they grew moist. "You of all people should know that!"  
  
"I know." The samurai answered. He glanced fearfully over his shoulder at the voodoo, who was gaining. "Go. Run. I'll catch you up."  
  
"Don't do anything stupid!" Yoh pleaded, taking off in the direction taken by Ren and Bason. Amidamaru started after him.  
  
The samurai moved as fast as he could, alternatively limping and dragging his injured leg. Suddenly his good leg gave way under the strain and he stumbled, his head catching a glancing blow on the rock wall. He fell to the floor, momentarily stunned.  
  
A shadow cast over him... he looked up, gritting his teeth and rubbing his head... the voodoo was back and he looked livid.  
  
The voodoo swung with the axe and Amidamaru rolled out of the way just in time, the axe head imbedded in the floor by his own head. With a roar, the voodoo withdrew it for another swing, which Amidamaru only just dodged. He was tiring, he could not last. Pain from his injuries was blurring his vision.  
  
As though from far away, he could hear the cries of his friends. _They must have come back for me... I don't want them hurt because of me... _He struggled towards the yells, leaning heavily on the wall, using it for guidance.  
  
The voodoo saw that his quarry was going to escape. He saw Ren and Bason ready to fight, with Yoh calling Amidamaru to him. There was no way he could win against all of them, as weak as two of them were. His mind, usually quick and calculating, was consumed with rage. He swung the axe blindly, wildly.  
  
Amidamaru heard the shrieks from his tormentor and turned his head briefly. That was all the voodoo needed. With a primeval screech of fury, he swung the axe at Amidamaru's unprotected head. The deadly blade caught the samurai just above his right eye and he was thrown back with a heartrending cry of pain. He lay in a pool of his own blood, unmoving, not breathing.  
  
The voodoo's snarl of triumph turned into a whimper of fear as Yoh, yelling Amidamaru's name desperately, descended on his head. Ren watched urgently, trying to get a clear shot for an attack with his Kwan Dao, but before he could interfere Yoh had slammed the voodoo's head down on the floor. The last thing the man saw before he lost consciousness was a swirling blackness coming to engulf him, as it had engulfed Amidamaru moments before.  
  
Yoh knelt by his fallen friend, shoulders shaking. Glistening tears escaped his eyes and splashed on to Amidamaru's lifeless body, soaking into his samurai robes. Very soon the soft material was sodden with mingled fresh blood and tears. Yoh placed his hand gently on one of the manacles that even now was locked around Amidamaru's wrist.  
  
Ren and Bason watched uncertainly, knowing that it was no longer their business. Whatever Yoh and Amidamaru had been through in captivity, they had obviously formed a new, special bond.  
  
Suddenly, Yoh keeled forward, landing on top of Amidamaru, drenched in the samurai's blood. A whisper escaped his lips as he, too, lost consciousness, the fever weakening him to such an extent that he could no longer remain awake. One final thought crossed his mind.  
  
What a price to pay, just to gain freedom. 


	9. The Road to Recovery

Yoh awoke with a moan. As the room around him slowly came into focus, he realised he was home. _Home_ – the word sent chills down his spine. It seemed so long ago that Amidamaru had first complained of indigestion.  
  
Speaking of Amidamaru –  
  
Yoh began to rise but was stopped by a hand on his chest, pushing him down. He looked into the troubled face of Manta.  
  
"How are you, Yoh?" The small boy asked. Yoh smiled.  
  
"Feeling better, Manta, feeling better. I was just going to check on Amidamaru." He said, his voice trailing off at the end of the sentence as he saw Manta swallow nervously. "He is ok, isn't he?"  
  
"Yoh, you have to understand, the injuries he received are far more extensive and far more serious than he led you to believe. He's got really nasty internal damage and the axe wound... it's gone right through his skull, Yoh.." Manta's voice was shaking and tears were threatening to fall from his eyes. Yoh's heart sank.  
  
"And...?" He asked in barely more than a whisper.  
  
"He apparently can't die, but... with the injuries he's got... he might never wake up..."  
  
"What?" the shaman asked. He felt the prickling of tears behind his own eyes and there were already two prominent tracks down Manta's cheeks.  
  
"He's in a coma, Yoh. The axe wound should have killed him, but he can't die... and he might not recover. He might be in the coma forever."  
  
Yoh felt the hot tears begin to stream down his cheeks and was engulfed by an inexplicable anger.  
  
"No." He said quietly.  
  
"Denying it won't change it, Yoh."  
  
"You're lying." Yoh's voice was growing steadily louder and more threatening while Manta's was getting quieter.  
  
"I only wish I was..."  
  
"YOU'RE LYING!"  
  
The young shaman leapt from the bed and sprinted out of the room. He had to find Amidamaru, he had to prove to himself that his samurai would be ok...  
  
There! In the spare bedroom, he had to be in the spare bedroom! Yoh rounded the corner and dashed into the room.  
  
Amidamaru was lying on the bed, still wearing his bloodstained samurai robes. A lose bandage around his head covered the axe wound and he was pale as death, breathing hoarsely through slightly parted lips.  
  
"Amidamaru?" Yoh asked cautiously, moving next to the bed and stroking his friend's matted hair gently. "Please wake up... please..."  
  
Amidamaru made no sign of having noticed Yoh. The young shaman bit his lip as more tears threatened to fall. He couldn't lose his samurai... not after all he had been through to get him back...  
  
"Yoh! Dinner!" Manta's shout alerted the shaman to the present day reality. No doubt Anna had cooked something for dinner. Yoh didn't feel hungry, didn't think he could eat anything... he just wanted to stay by Amidamaru's side, to tell the samurai that it was all going to be ok, that he would wake up...  
  
Yoh didn't speak at all during dinner, nor did he speak when Ren and Bason called round and asked if they could stay for a while. After all the formalities of having guests to feed had passed, he rushed straight back up into Amidamaru's room. The sunset showing through the window reflected beautifully on Amidamaru's pale face.  
  
Yoh pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed, stroking Amidamaru's hair, caressing his cheek, hoping to wake him up. It was no use; the samurai remained oblivious to all that was happening around him. Yoh sat there with Amidamaru until long after sundown, until long after everyone had said their goodnights and gone to bed.  
  
There were no movements from the warrior, no signs of recognition, nothing. Yoh suddenly collapsed on his samurai, crying almost hysterically, pressing his ear to Amidamaru's chest. Listening to the dreadfully slow heartbeat.  
  
He raised his head again, blinking the tears away, leaving his hand on Amidamaru's bare, scarred chest. An insane thought flashed across his mind as he looked at his friend's slightly parted lips. Surely it wouldn't hurt... a final goodbye...?  
  
Slowly, gently, Yoh pressed his lips to Amidamaru's in a soft, almost loving kiss, though the samurai could not feel it and made no response. Yoh sighed as he withdrew, a tear trickling down his cheek. He had never got a chance to confess to Amidamaru... to tell the warrior that he loved him. Yoh had finally accepted that what he felt towards his guardian was more than just friendship, and now that he could identify his feelings, he could not tell the warrior... no. He would not let Amidamaru be stolen from him again!  
  
"Ami – chan... please wake up..." Yoh laid both his hands on Amidamaru's chest, moving his right hand in small circles over the exposed flesh. "I... I _need _you... I can't live without you, you're more than just a friend to me now... if you go, I don't know how... I don't know how I'll survive... please wake up, Amidamaru, please don't leave me... I love you..." the young shaman dissolved in a sobbing fit as soon as he finished his short speech.  
  
The samurai's eyelids flickered. Yoh froze in shock as a cold, weak hand closed slowly around his own.  
  
"Do you mean that?" Amidamaru asked. "Do you really mean that?"  
  
It was hard to describe the mix of feelings that coursed through Yoh as his friend hauled himself painfully into a sitting position. Relief, happiness, shock... all were relatively slow in gripping the boy, so his anger showed first.  
  
"You were listening!" He pointed an accusing finger at Amidamaru, who looked away.  
  
"Yes." The warrior admitted sadly. "I was listening. I came round just before you said "I need you" and I realised you were talking to me... I let you finish, because it is harder to say things of that sort to someone's face if they are conscious. If I had interrupted you, you might never have finished and I... I still wouldn't know..."  
  
Yoh's forehead creased in a frown, though it was no longer in anger.  
  
"What do you mean?" He asked, suddenly breathless, knowing exactly what the samurai would say.  
  
"That I... well..." Amidamaru blinked and swallowed, as though he could not quite believe what he was saying. "I think... I have looked at you as more than a friend for some while now, Yoh, but I never truly realised what it was that I felt... until now. You have just made the answer clear to me."  
  
"You love me too." Yoh stated. Suddenly Amidamaru's clarification on this point was the most important thing in the world.  
  
"Yes." Yoh looked at Amidamaru and realised how much bravery it must have taken on the samurai's front to admit this. It must be dishonouring for a samurai, he realised, to think about someone so much younger in the way Amidamaru thought about him. Though honour was not as vital as it had been 600 years ago, old habits die hard. Amidamaru must have been so scared of rejection, knowing that Yoh and Anna were engaged... bottling up feelings makes them grow...  
  
Yoh smiled. He could see he needed to put Amidamaru's mind at rest, to help the samurai confess more of his feelings, to show that he, Yoh, really was being sincere.  
  
He again pressed his lips to Amidamaru's, though this time Amidamaru was conscious and alert, and the young shaman could feel the samurai's response. It was... hesitant. Nervous. Almost fearful. Why was Amidamaru scared? Yoh pulled away quickly and saw Amidamaru was trembling like a leaf.  
  
"What's the matter?" He asked, his voice radiating genuine concern. "Was it bad?"  
  
"I – I – I..." The samurai stuttered. "It... it was..." He swallowed and regained control of himself. "Did you really mean what you said earlier?"  
  
"Of course I did, you big lump" Yoh said jokingly, though his heart was heavy on the inside. Why hadn't Amidamaru answered? "Anyway, it's late and I want sleep. I'll be here in the morning to check you aren't a mirage."  
  
Amidamaru smiled weakly as Yoh left the room.  
  
The samurai cursed himself. Why hadn't he answered Yoh's question? It was his first romantic experience and surely it was the shaman's too? Why had he risked destroying Yoh's ego like that_? Great lover you are, Amidamaru. Make the poor boy self conscious and scared of kissing before he's even given you a real kiss.  
_  
So why hadn't he answered the simple question? Because he didn't know the answer. True, it had aroused senses in him that he had never felt before, but there was a deep scar, both physical and mental, that had been awakened while he was being touched as Yoh touched him. He could not quite place it, but it scared him, prevented him from enjoying his first kiss with Yoh as he would have liked.  
  
The samurai was both embarrassed and scared as he recovered from the post- coma disorientation and realised what it was that had placed the permanent scar in his mentality. He was scared the others would find out, would laugh...  
  
Amidamaru began to withdraw into his shell. 


	10. Amidamaru's Therapy

Note: We move more on to the physical love in this chapter. If that scares you, then bugger off ; ok, ok... just kidding. If that weirds you out then skip this chapter.  
  
---  
  
Amidamaru did not speak much about his experience in the dungeon. In fact, Amidamaru barely spoke at all. As the days progressed, he became more quiet, more introvert. He spent growing amounts of time alone in his room, brooding.  
  
Anna had moved Amidamaru in to the room next to Yoh, which was in the south wing of the house. All the other bedrooms in the house were in the north wing, so only Yoh heard the whimpers and the sobbing that came from the samurai's room at night. It seemed he wasn't the only one who had trouble sleeping these days.  
  
The insomnia had not been kind to Amidamaru; the young warrior was gaunt, his face was permanently pale and there were always fatigue bags under his eyes. Sometimes, if Yoh were up early enough, he would bump in to Amidamaru on the way to the bathroom. Then he would see the tear tracks on his friend's cheeks, the tired downcast eyes. Amidamaru would notice Yoh and put his guard up immediately, insisting that there was nothing wrong.  
  
Yoh had got the impression that Amidamaru was avoiding him. Why? Had the kiss really been that bad? But... surely only a kiss would not keep a trained samurai awake at night?  
  
Yoh got his chance the next morning. He awoke early, at around half past six, to the usual sound of sobbing from the next room. He could not take it any longer, something bad had happened to Amidamaru and Yoh was determined to make his friend feel better. Slipping on some clothes, the young shaman crept out of his room.  
  
He carefully slid Amidamaru's door open and peered in. The samurai was sitting on the bed with his back to the door, head bowed. It seemed he knew he was not to get any sleep; he had not even changed out of his samurai robes.  
  
"Amidamaru?" Yoh asked cautiously. The silhouette in front of him froze, raising its head in shock. Amidamaru turned round.  
  
"Yoh?" He asked. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I woke up. I heard you crying so I thought I'd see what's up." Yoh shrugged and Amidamaru had to exert enormous amounts of control to stop himself looking away. Since his shared kiss with Yoh, his need for the young shaman had been welling up inside until it was a physical ache.  
  
"I am sorry, Yoh. I should not have disturbed you."  
  
Yoh went to sit on the bed next to Amidamaru.  
  
"It's not that that worries me." He began. "No doubt I sleep too much anyway. No, what worries me is you. You're upset about something, really upset. I haven't seen you anywhere near this bad before, not even when Harusame was broken." Yoh looked his friend straight in the face. "You can't pretend there's nothing wrong."  
  
The samurai seemed to be speechless.  
  
"Was it really that bad when I kissed you?" Yoh asked, moving closer to Amidamaru. It was still cold as the sun had not yet risen, and he was eager to get as close as he could to the source of heat.  
  
Amidamaru looked at the floor, dejected and mournful. Yoh's mind seemed to shut down momentarily, he forgot everything that had happened in the last few moments, he just wanted to cheer Amidamaru up.  
  
Yoh brought his lips up towards Amidamaru's, being sure to let the samurai close the gap between them. He did, but even as their mouths locked Yoh could sense the underlying fear, the nervousness, the hesitation. Yoh pulled away, staring hard at Amidamaru, who was shaking. The tears streamed down the samurai's face.  
  
"Yoh... Yoh... I'm so sorry... I can't..."  
  
Yoh turned away. It was as though someone had turned a light on in his mind, the pieces of the puzzle were all coming together now.  
  
Something had happened that had transformed Amidamaru from a brave young samurai into a nervous wreck. He lay awake at night, crying, unable to sleep. He had become solitary and brooding. Yoh remembered how scared of the voodoo his friend had been; yet Amidamaru was scared of no one. Therefore it must have been something the voodoo had done.  
  
Yoh considered how desperate Amidamaru had been to protect him from the voodoo – that must have been because the man would have done something truly awful to him. Add that with Amidamaru's apparent phobia of being touched in a sexual way... Yoh had seen how his samurai had trembled when the voodoo was playing his games...  
  
Was it possible? Could it really be that Amidamaru had been... well... it must have been. There had been a huge thing about internal injuries, hadn't there? Where else would they have come from? Yoh's mind was made up.  
  
"Amidamaru?" He said determinedly, turning back to his friend, who looked up slowly. "Please tell me. What happened to you in that cell before I came?"  
  
Amidamaru's face contorted in a mix of shock, fear and embarrassment.  
  
"Do you need to know?" He whispered.  
  
"You need me to, Amidamaru." Yoh replied. "Bottling up things makes them grow. If you don't tell anyone then it'll eventually take you over. It doesn't have to be me that you tell, but you need to tell someone."  
  
Amidamaru thought about this.  
  
"It is hard for me to put into words." He said at last, and his voice sounded strange, almost choked. "But I can show you if you want... if you are sure..."  
  
Yoh nodded once.  
  
"Very well." Amidamaru sighed. "Place your hand on my forehead. And close your eyes."  
  
Yoh complied, feeling a bit stupid, but then he bucked forward. He threw out his other arm, expecting Amidamaru to catch him, but there was no one there. The samurai had disappeared! Yoh opened his eyes.  
  
He was spinning in a purple haze. A stone room was materialising around him. In the distance and getting louder, he could hear cold, cruel laughter. He landed on the floor with a bump and realised, as he picked himself up, that he was somehow in Amidamaru's memory.  
  
And there, right in front of him, Amidamaru himself. Chained to the wall, exactly how Yoh had found him, though not quite so bruised or bloodstained. This must have been before Yoh came, what had happened to make him so afraid... the voodoo was on top of him, attacking him and laughing. Yoh could see Amidamaru struggling weakly, trying to avoid a flailing riding crop.  
  
Amidamaru's face was creased with an emotion that Yoh could not identify from where he was standing; yet he could not get any closer. It was a while before he realised Amidamaru – the real Amidamaru, not this memory of him – was keeping him away, protecting him from what was about to unfold.  
  
The voodoo suddenly threw the whip to one side. Mist began to sweep across the scene and Yoh knew Amidamaru was preserving his own dignity as well as protecting Yoh's innocence. The voodoo released the shackles from Amidamaru's wrists. The samurai tried to crawl away, but the other man flipped him over and sat on him, crushing him.  
  
There was a ripping of material. Mist had almost completely obscured the scene now, Yoh could no longer see what was going on. But that did not stop the screams. There was an awful howl of pure agony and a pitiless, humourless laugh. Then more cries, more screams of pain in an almost rhythmic pattern, mingling with laughter and the muffled thuds of flesh on stone.  
  
Yoh was horrified... he knew he had been expecting a rape, there was no other possible conclusion to Amidamaru's strange behaviour, but he had not expected it to be so... awful, intense... heartrending. He heard himself shouting, pleading for it to stop, yelling for Amidamaru.  
  
The screams stopped abruptly. There was a curse in the voodoo's voice, Amidamaru had apparently lost consciousness. Yoh was thankful. At least his samurai was no longer in pain. He shook his head. He was wrong. The event he had just witnessed had caused sleepless nights and a permanent mental scar.  
  
He woke up suddenly, back in his own body, in the real world. Amidamaru was frantically shaking him by the shoulders.  
  
"What... happened...?" He asked groggily.  
  
"You went rigid and fell down." Amidamaru answered, looking guilty and ashamed. "I should never have agreed to show you. I am sorry."  
  
"Don't be sorry." Yoh insisted. "I chose to see."  
  
Yoh suddenly gripped the samurai in a hug, burying his head in the older man's chest.  
  
"I didn't realise, Ami-chan..." He sobbed. Amidamaru looked stunned, patting the boy's head uncertainly. Yoh released him, smiling through his tears.  
  
"You do want this, don't you?" He asked. "You aren't just doing this out of some misguided sense of duty? It is not your duty as a guardian ghost to keep me entertained, you know."  
  
"Yoh..." Amidamaru breathed. "I want this... I want _you_... more that anything else in the world. And I am hardly your guardian ghost anymore. It's just... I'm... I'm so..."  
  
"Afraid?" Yoh supplied. Amidamaru nodded. "What he did to you was rape, Amidamaru. There is no love in rape."  
  
"I know." The samurai's voice was barely more than a whisper. "It still hurts."  
  
"It's bound to..." Yoh's voice was choked as he spoke. "I promise I won't hurt you. If you don't want me to do this then I won't. I'm not a monster."  
  
"I want you to, Yoh..."  
  
There was a potent pause, neither side moving for a short while. Then Amidamaru wrapped his arms around Yoh's small body gently, pulling the shaman into a hug. Yoh smiled against the samurai's bare chest and snuggled further in, closing his eyes and pulling the muscular body closer to him.  
  
Amidamaru swallowed. Even this, love in its most innocent physical form, was making his stomach do backflips. He felt himself begin to relax and nuzzled into the crook between Yoh's shoulder and neck.  
  
Yoh closed his eyes sleepily – he could stay like this forever with Amidamaru in his arms – more accurately, him in Amidamaru's arms. He loved it, the feel of the soft material of his friend's... no, _lover's_ clothing, the warmth from his body, the rise and fall of his strong chest as he breathed...  
  
"I love you, Yoh-dono." Yoh's breath caught as the words were whispered at a close proximity to his ear. The puff of hot air across his sensitive skin had made him shiver, though he was not cold. He pulled away, wondering if Amidamaru knew how that one sentence had affected him.  
  
From the playful, cheeky smirk on the samurai's face, Yoh guessed that he knew. True, it was Amidamaru's first romantic experience, but the other man was a quick learner and was using this to his advantage. Well. Yoh grinned inwardly. He couldn't be having that...  
  
With a swift push, he forced Amidamaru backwards onto the bed. Yoh was now lying on top of the warrior, who was looking puzzled. Yoh brushed his lips against Amidamaru's cheek, teasing him. He nibbled the young swordsman's earlobe gently, just enough for Amidamaru to shiver slightly, before trailing the kisses down his cheek, neck and shoulder to his chest.  
  
Amidamaru threw his head back, panting, as Yoh trailed the brushing kisses down his bare chest to his navel. Now it was Yoh's turn to smirk playfully, the tables had turned. Now it was he who had complete control over Amidamaru. He had Amidamaru beneath him, writhing, trembling...  
  
The young shaman felt the heat emanating from Amidamaru's quivering body and suddenly realised that Amidamaru was trying to stall, trying to put off the moment when their lips would lock again. Yoh placed a kiss on the coarse skin of Amidamaru's throat before withdrawing completely, leaving the breathless Amidamaru lying on the bed underneath him.  
  
"It's not too late to quit, Ami-chan..." Yoh murmured lazily, stroking the warrior's hair. "You can pull out now and I won't think any less of you."  
  
"I want this, Yoh." Amidamaru's voice was laced with a small amount of confidence, though Yoh could hear it shaking. The fear. It had to be destroyed.  
  
Yoh pressed his lips to Amidamaru's, supporting the other's head with his hand. He could sense Amidamaru's hesitation but this time he ignored it. Like he said, this was what Amidamaru wanted. The fear must be destroyed.  
  
Amidamaru tried to pull away, Yoh's firm but gentle hand restraining him. After two or three attempts, however, he relaxed and became absorbed, mimicking Yoh's actions, pulling the shaman closer to him, crushing their lips together...  
  
"YOH ASAKURA, YOU GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" A scream from downstairs ran through the house and the two broke apart like guilty teens who had been caught necking. Yoh looked down at Amidamaru to make sure that his samurai had not been too adversely affected by the shaman's refusal to let him pull away.  
  
On the contrary. Amidamaru was grinning, the first proper smile Yoh had seen on his for days. It was infectious and, as Yoh grinned too, Amidamaru started to laugh. He had not laughed since the day he had complained of indigestion (of course, that was the day where he had apparently given some poor innocent swallow a heart attack, but never mind).  
  
Yoh began laughing too, laughing with relief. It seemed that the assault on Amidamaru's privacy and dignity had not destroyed the samurai beyond repair, it seemed that Amidamaru could still be saved.  
  
Perhaps there was a future for the shaman and his samurai after all. 


	11. Facing the Fear

Yoh slid off Amidamaru, his feet landing gently on the floor. The samurai sat up and watched as Yoh made for the door.  
  
"Well, see you later, Amidamaru." The young shaman grunted as he stretched. "Anna wants me doing 3 miles before breakfast, I think. Not as bad as usual, huh?"  
  
Amidamaru nodded once, smiling.  
  
"Actually," Yoh said, turning round at the door. "Come and meet me downstairs after I've finished training at about dinnertime. I've got something to show you."  
  
Again, Amidamaru nodded once and Yoh departed, Anna's angry calls ringing in his ears.  
  
The ancient samurai stretched and sat on the side of the bed, fastening his sandals on. In less than an hour he had gone from being terrified of any sexual touch to desperately wanting more – what was Yoh doing to him? The boy had complete control; Amidamaru was a slave to the shaman's kisses and caresses.  
  
Amidamaru headed downstairs.  
  
---  
  
If there was a bad thing about being alive apart from the ability to feel pain, it was called Anna. Anna was happy in her own way of showing no emotion that Amidamaru was at last able to properly hold the toilet brush. She had been working the samurai like a slave, only letting him stop for the occasional drink. Now Amidamaru truly knew how Manta felt.  
  
There was one big difference between Manta and Amidamaru, though. While Manta complained almost non-stop, Amidamaru never uttered a word in self- defence. He went about his tasks without protest.  
  
His mind was elsewhere, engrossed in what Yoh had told him earlier that morning. What could the Shaman possibly have to show him? Offhand, he could not think of anything – unless it was some sort of katana? He shook his head slowly. No. Maybe that was the sort of thing Mosuke would have been eager to show him 600 years ago, but this was a different life, a different time. It was not likely to be a katana.  
  
He inspected the spotless room scornfully, picked up his mop and bucket and moved on to his next assignment, the master bedroom. It was relatively easy, as no one ever slept in it. It was supposedly being saved for Anna and Yoh when Yoh became Shaman King. Amidamaru was glad to see that there were two single beds. After what Yoh had done to him that morning, he felt sickened imagining the young shaman with a girl.  
  
He made the bed and fluffed up the pillow, pausing momentarily, leaning over the bed, taking a rest. He gasped in surprise as two hands snaked their way around his waist and down the inside of his robes to his hips.  
  
"Guess who?" Yoh grinned from behind.  
  
"Yoh!" Amidamaru exhaled. "You scared me, I thought you were..."  
  
"You thought I was him, didn't you?" Yoh frowned as he realised his mistake. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you."  
  
Amidamaru turned round, his thin face tender and gentle.  
  
"It's ok, Yoh." He managed a half-smile. Yoh returned it before suddenly brightening up.  
  
"Anna working you hard, huh?" He asked. Amidamaru nodded. "Look, there's time before dinner. Come with me, I have to show you something."  
  
"But Anna..."  
  
"I'm Yoh."  
  
"No, you misunderstand me. Anna hates it if I leave a job unfinished."  
  
Yoh sighed and rolled his eyes. When Anna had introduced herself to Amidamaru way back in the beginning, her way of saying "hello" was to tie him up in her necklace multiple times. It was hardly a wonder that the samurai had some sort of deep-rooted fear of her.  
  
Yoh led Amidamaru to one of the unused rooms in the house, producing a key. Amidamaru's face was contorted in bewilderment; he did not know what was coming.  
  
Unbeknownst to Amidamaru, after Yoh had knocked the voodoo priest out, Ren and Bason had dragged him back to the Asakura residence. He was imprisoned in the very room that the shaman and his guardian were standing outside, secured by the very same chains that had bound Amidamaru. Yoh called that justice.  
  
Yoh opened the door slowly.  
  
"I think you should go in alone." He whispered. Amidamaru frowned and walked in hesitantly. There was a sneering chuckle from the corner of the room on his entrance.  
  
"You." An all too familiar voice mocked. "I should have known you'd be back for more."  
  
Amidamaru stared impassively down at the man who had made his life hell, at the face which haunted his dreams, tormented his life. The voodoo laughed.  
  
"You think you are strong? You are weak! You are weaker than the smallest newborn baby! I can break you as easily as a twig. I can rip through your mind, I can tear you apart! No one cares about you. You belong to me. I will always be able to manipulate you, to command you to do my bidding. You are, and always will be, my slave."  
  
The voodoo finished his short, scathing speech, but it did not have the desired effect. Amidamaru remained emotionless.  
  
Then, the sinister man drew his arm back and punched Amidamaru in the face, the chains barely reaching the limit. Amidamaru did not flinch and his eyes barely flickered as he brought his hand to his nose. It came away bloody.  
  
"You may regret doing that." He said tonelessly before turning on his heel and exiting the room.  
  
Yoh closed the door after him, locking it. The young shaman looked worriedly up at his friend.  
  
"Yoh... you do not mind if I spend some time alone?" Amidamaru asked suddenly. Yoh smiled and shook his head.  
  
"Go ahead – you want me to bring dinner up?"  
  
"No. I am not hungry."  
  
---  
  
Amidamaru kicked his sandals off and flung himself on to the bed. Meeting with his torturer again had just succeeded in confusing him even more and he wondered vaguely why Yoh had taken him down there in the first place.  
  
He dozed off for a while, semi conscious, still exhausted from nights of insomnia. It was a most amazing feeling, like that of all his troubles and cares being locked from his mind. He knew, on some subconscious level, that they would bother him when he woke fully up, but he was floating on a transparent sea of nothing.  
  
Footsteps from somewhere snapped him out of his state of perpetual fantasy. He looked sleepily at the clock on the table by his bed – fuck! It was already 11.pm! How had the time passed so quickly, he had surely only been asleep for ten minutes...?  
  
His mind wandered back to the speech given by the voodoo priest, short and mocking. As the cutting sentences relayed themselves in his mind, he answered them out loud.  
  
_You think you are strong? You are weak!_  
  
"I know."  
  
_You are weaker than the smallest newborn baby!_  
  
"I know."  
  
_I can break you like a twig._  
  
"Yes."  
  
_I can rip through your mind._  
  
"Yes."  
  
_I can tear you apart.  
_  
"Yes."  
  
_No one cares about you._  
  
"No. You are wrong. Yoh cares."  
  
_You belong to me  
_  
"I belong to Yoh."  
  
_I will always be able to manipulate you, to command you to do my bidding._  
  
"I belong to Yoh."  
  
_You are, and always will be, my slave.  
_  
"No. I will not let you control me any more."  
  
There was a sudden, timid knock at the door. Amidamaru gave it a puzzled glance as it swung open, revealing a dishevelled, tired looking Yoh.  
  
"Amidamaru? I thought I heard voices." The shaman yawned. "And, being as talking to yourself is the first kind of madness, I came to check if you were ok."  
  
Yoh paused as he opened his eyes, which widened with surprise.  
  
"Holy...! What are you _wearing_?"  
  
Amidamaru looked sceptically down at himself. He was wearing the clothes he slept in: some baggy pants that were loosely done up at the waist, and an old, ragged Hawaiian shirt that revealed his torso right down to his navel. He frowned, remembering Yoh had never seen him out of his samurai robes. How different he must look!  
  
"Anna picked them out for me." He explained. "I sleep in them. Admittedly, the buttons of the shirt do rub sometimes."  
  
Yoh raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Why don't you do up the shirt then?"  
  
Amidamaru blushed.  
  
"It does not fit, I am too fat for it."  
  
"_Fat_?" Yoh asked incredulously, placing his hands on the warrior's torso. He felt the lean, sinewy toughness of the muscles underneath the skin, felt the ripples as they strained and tensed when Amidamaru moved or breathed.  
  
Amidamaru smiled.  
  
"I am merely quoting Anna."  
  
"If that's fat then I'm the Queen of England!"  
  
"You are?" Amidamaru asked, looking quite alarmed. Yoh grinned.  
  
"No. Well, anyway. If it's the shirt that annoys you, you could just take it off, you know."  
  
Amidamaru paused and then slid the dilapidated shirt off his shoulders. Yoh's eyes widened as it fell to the floor; he had been joking when he said to take it off. The young shaman was momentarily tongue-tied.  
  
"...wow, Amidamaru..."  
  
Amidamaru became uneasy under the boy's lingering gaze. Yoh's fingertips were tickling his sternum. Tiny jolts of electricity were firing from each contact point, and they had the distinct intention of gathering in his nether regions. He shifted uncomfortably and Yoh blinked, shaking himself.  
  
"I can see you were just about to go to bed, so... I'll bugger off now." He flashed one of his contagious smiles and started for the door.  
  
"Wait..." Amidamaru began, not entirely believing what he was planning to ask. "Yoh..."  
  
Yoh turned. Amidamaru hesitated momentarily.  
  
"Stay with me, Yoh... please... it hurts to be away from you... please stay, I..."  
  
Yoh grinned and placed his finger on his lips to show that Amidamaru need say no more and that he would stay. Amidamaru visibly sagged with relief. He slumped on the edge of the bed and Yoh moved to join him.  
  
Amidamaru slipped under the covers and beckoned Yoh to join him. The two of them snuggled together, body heat mingling, chasing away all the cold.  
  
Amidamaru remembered the last time he had been in this position, back in the cell. It seemed so long ago, he was so tired, so intoxicated...  
  
Yoh felt Amidamaru fall asleep next to him and breathed a sigh of contentment. Two weeks ago, if someone had told him he would be sleeping in the same bed as his guardian, let alone being held by him, he would have dismissed them as either insane or just very very perverted. Now, though...  
  
For the first time in days, Amidamaru slept peacefully. The same cannot be said for Yoh.  
  
---  
  
_The stench of decay was overpowering. Yoh opened his eyes. He was back in the cell, that little room where he had spent almost a week, though it was different to how he remembered it. Blood smeared the walls; puddles of it stained the floor. It had not been like this when he had been in there last. What had happened?  
  
There was a movement from near the wall. Yoh's stomach knotted, unknotted and convulsed several times as he vomited at the sight of Amidamaru, who was shackled to the wall, as before. Every inch of the great warrior's bare skin was bruised, or else it was torn and bloody.  
  
Amidamaru's face, stained with mingled blood, tears and dirt, was creased with pain as the voodoo slammed into him from behind. Yoh's stomach convulsed again. He could hear the ragged, laboured breathing from his samurai; the long, drawn out moans which escalated into full-fledged screams of pain. Amidamaru's gaunt, emaciated body jolted with every one of the other man's violent thrusts.  
  
Yoh knelt down by his friend's head, stroking the matted hair. Amidamaru's eyes shot open, filled with terror and pain.  
  
"Yoh...?" He gasped. Yoh nodded, biting back the tears that were already threatening to fall.  
  
"I'm here, Amidamaru." He muttered. Amidamaru's head lolled to the side, his eyes suddenly sightless.  
  
"Leave me, Yoh..." He inhaled agonisingly. "leave... me..."  
  
"Never." Yoh said defiantly. Amidamaru struggled to continue breathing and suddenly Yoh knew; Amidamaru was dying before his very eyes, he was watching his friend die... then he would do what Mosuke never could – he would not let Amidamaru die alone. Not again.  
  
There was another shuddering breath from Amidamaru, who now seemed completely oblivious to Yoh. Every time he drew a breath now, it was to plead for release from his torture.  
  
"Oh, let... let me die... let me die... please... let me die..."  
  
Yoh smelt something, something new, something apart from the overpowering stench of rotting flesh and blood. It smelt strange, like a new roast meal out of the oven. There was a crackling sound, one that was vaguely familiar but he could not place.  
  
Amidamaru's whimper of relief drew him back to the voodoo, who had withdrawn. The man looked angry and scared; he was looking up at the door to the basement. Yoh glanced up and saw the reason.  
  
Fire. A chemical spill, the flammable material was even now seeping into the dungeon, liquid flames. Yoh sighed in relief – when the fire services broke through they would surely find Amidamaru. He would be saved and the voodoo would be brought to justice.  
  
The same thought seemed to have occurred to the voodoo himself; he was dragged Amidamaru's limp, unresisting body towards a large puddle of the leaking chemical. The samurai was drenched in it; the tattered remains of his clothes were saturated. With one final heave, the voodoo shoved Amidamaru into the advancing flame.  
  
Amidamaru's final despairing cry rang in Yoh's ears, as did the laughter of the voodoo as he fled through the back door to the basement.  
  
Yoh was stunned, but he had realised what this reality was – and it was indeed a reality. It was what would have happened if he had not turned up to save Amidamaru. Could... could the samurai really have been destroyed in the way he had been, consumed by flame, with only the memory of rape to take with him to the other side? Yes. Yes, that was how the voodoo would have ended Amidamaru's suffering, if Yoh had not turned up.  
  
Yoh felt himself losing consciousness, the smoke blinding and choking him as he sought for Amidamaru's body in the flames. He could feel his skin smouldering, scorching, burning away... almost bubbling and melting... but he did not care. It had ended.  
  
_Yoh woke up, panting and sweating. It took a while for his breathing to go back to normal, the nightmare had been so... real, so vivid. He felt a pang of guilt. In that reality, the one he had just come from, he had never had a chance to say goodbye... was this how Mosuke had felt? Not having a chance to say goodbye...  
  
He looked to his side. Amidamaru was still sleeping, undisturbed by Yoh's movements, unaware that the shaman had witnessed his ultimate destruction. 


	12. Lost and Won

Amidamaru' eyes slowly opened early the next morning, and, momentarily disorientated, he at first wondered why Yoh was curled up in his arms. Then, as memories of their earlier interchange seeped back into the samurai's mind, he snuggled slightly closer to the younger shaman.  
  
He looked through heavy-lidded, half-closed eyes at the boy next to him before sweeping his gaze around his small room. They came to rest on the tattered Hawaiian shirt on the floor and it was this small detail that brought him out of his post-sleep disorientation with a sickening thud of reality. Had he...? What _had_ he been doing last night?  
  
And then he remembered complaining to Yoh about the shirt not fitting him, Yoh jokingly telling him to take it off. He had complied; he could not ever deny Yoh something he wanted, even if his friend was joking.  
  
Amidamaru dragged the tip of his tongue along Yoh's jaw-line, pausing to nibble the soft skin of the boy's earlobe. Then he trailed ghostly kisses down the back of Yoh's neck, grazing his teeth against the shaman's shoulder blade as he brought his head up to nuzzle into the other.

Yoh's eyes drew open slowly as Amidamaru's soft silvery-lilac hair tickled his chin. He stared sleepily at the samurai lying next to him.  
  
"Are you real?" The young shaman's voice was heavy, his brain still half asleep.  
  
Amidamaru mentally frowned as he continued his administrations. He had been hoping for a moan from Yoh, or the shaman whispering his name or some positive response. It did not inspire confidence that the first words out of the younger boy's mouth had been "are you real?".  
  
"You are getting so good at that..." Yoh's breath caught and he shivered as Amidamaru grazed his teeth against the shaman's throat. Well, at least that was a little more reassuring than "are you real"  
  
Yoh yawned and stretched before wrapping his arms around Amidamaru's waist and pulling the samurai closer.  
  
It would be nice to have a wake up call like that every day, Ami-chan..." He breathed. Amidamaru smiled and looked away, wisely deciding not to question Yoh's waking comment. It was surely because Yoh was still dreaming and had carried his dream into reality - wasn't it?

Yoh was having a hard time looking at the young swordsman; every time his eyes locked with the samurai's he saw the bloodstains, the tears, the desperate plea in eyes that were, even in his moments of torture, blackened by a dead, haunted hopelessness. The young shaman had to keep reminding himself that it had only been a dream, that he had not really seen Amidamaru's flayed, broken body sprawled at the voodoo's feet, that he had not really seen his samurai consumed by flames and heard the last strangled cry in the final moments of his life.

The young shaman subconsciously buried his face in the samurai's chest and Amidamaru, taken by slight surprise, pulled the boy closer, protectively. Yoh turned his head upward, his sleepy eyes looking in to Amidamaru's face.

"oh, Amidamaru..." The shaman exhaled before planting his lips firmly on Amidamaru's. The ancient warrior sighed in satisfaction, returning the kiss vigorously.

Yoh used his tongue to gently ease Amidamaru's lips apart, but the young shaman was taken by surprise as, all of a sudden, Amidamaru willingly opened his mouth. It seemed as though the samurai was ready, even if he was scared.

Yoh's tongue darted in to Amidamaru's mouth, exploring every sweet inch. The swordsman tasted of mint and chocolate – obviously from dessert the night before. Yoh was intoxicated by the rush of sensations and he at last achieved his desire as his tongue met Amidamaru's. They danced together and intertwined, each trying for dominance.

Yoh pulled back, letting Amidamaru search his mouth, letting the warrior see what he tasted like. Amidamaru's tongue ran across his teeth, across his tongue, exploring his mouth like an inquisitive child.

At last they pulled apart, breathless, Yoh smiling with excitation, but Amidamaru's face was dark and drawn, sorrowful.

"What's the matter?" Yoh asked concernedly. Amidamaru looked away. Yoh thought he saw the glint of a tear splash away from one of the samurai's eyes, but his long pale hair concealed his face. When he spoke there was a definite quiver in his voice.

"I can't do this, Yoh."

"Of course you can." Yoh moved his arm around Amidamaru's shoulders, comforting the other. "I loved it... anything you don't know we can learn together."

"N-no..." Amidamaru was definitely choking over his words now. "You misunderstand me. I can't do it. You're thirteen, Yoh. I'm six hundred and twenty four. There's over five hundred years' difference. It's worse than cradle snatching, it's worse than paedophilia."

"You're not a paedophile." Yoh said softly. Amidamaru turned his tear-stained face towards the shaman. It was a mask of guilt and shame, a sight that caused the claw around Yoh's heart to give it a painful wrench.

"How is what I'm doing any different from a paedophile, though?" The samurai whispered.

"Because I want this as well, Amidamaru. I'm giving you permission." Yoh answered, smiling with a hint of sadness. Amidamaru leant towards Yoh and closed his eyes; the shaman actually thought that Amidamaru had decided to carry on when the samurai pulled away suddenly.

"I... I can't..." He sobbed.

"Amidamaru..." Yoh stared at his friend, who swallowed a few times as though trying to get rid of the lump that had risen in his throat.

"Please, Yoh... please leave... I can't..." Amidamaru bit his lip and averted his gaze and Yoh knew that it was over. He nodded, trying to hold his own tears back.

"I understand." He said shortly, rising from the bed. Without a backwards glance, he left the room.

When the door clicked shut, Amidamaru gave a small, almost non-existent moan and turned over in the bed, pulling up the covers so they concealed his entire body.

-

Yoh walked sadly along the corridor toward the bathroom. He respected Amidamaru's decision, realising how hard it must be for the samurai. Honour played a huge part in a samurai's very lifestyle, it must have devastated Amidamaru to find that the affections he felt for Yoh were sexual. There was such a huge age difference between them – Yoh was actually surprised Amidamaru had held out for so long.

Yoh was immersed in thought so deeply that he did not notice Ren until he walked in to the other shaman.

"Hey! Watch it!" The Tao snapped. Yoh apologised and Ren's expression softened a little.

"Congratulations." He said at last, watching Yoh.

"Sorry?"

"You and Amidamaru. You're perfect for each other. Amidamaru's been through a serious psychological breakdown." Ren shrugged. "You're just what he needs to rebuild his life."

"He's better." Yoh said curtly. "And we're not together."

"No?" Ren's expression was one of puzzlement. Yoh shook his head.

"Not anymore... hey, can you hear something?"

Both young shamans strained their ears to the sound of banging coming from downstairs.

-

With a dejected sigh, Amidamaru began dressing in his samurai robes. He felt as though a huge hole had been blown inside him, emptiness coursed through him as though carried in his bloodstream. He had just thrown away the most important thing in his life, or unlife, or relife, or whatever the hell it was he was experiencing now.

Of all the people he had known in the past, Yoh was the only one who really cared apart from Mosuke. And Mosuke... Amidamaru remembered when he had first developed feelings for Mosuke, he had been too scared and too ashamed to confess to his friend, who was decidedly straight. In Yoh the samurai had everything that Mosuke couldn't give him. And he had thrown it away.

He stared silently out of the window, tying the belt around his robes and slipping his white cloak on, before dragging his gaze away to focus on fastening his arm and leg guards. He wasn't quite sure why he insisted on wearing them; it wasn't as though he needed them anymore.

He stared at the shields that had once covered his shoulder. He did not wear those anymore, they were simply too heavy and they got in the way. He had tucked them next to his twin katanas, which lay on the table. He watched them, as though hoping one would suddenly come to life and plunge itself into his heart. At least then he wouldn't have to live with the pain.

His keen ears heard the banging coming from downstairs, and he ignored it. Why bother? It wasn't his concern. There wasn't anything downstairs except –

Except –

Oh, shit.

Amidamaru grabbed one of his swords and shot off towards the stairs like a startled rabbit. There was only one person downstairs who could be making the noise that sounded suspiciously of metal on metal.

He hared down the corridor, sprinting at full pelt, narrowly missing crashing in to Ren and Yoh, who stared after him.

"Where's he going?" Ren asked, but Yoh was beginning to realise what Amidamaru had already figured out.

"Oh, no..." He began, starting after Amidamaru. "He's escaped!"

"_Who's_ escaped?" Ren demanded, running after Yoh.

"_He_ has."

-

Amidamaru found the voodoo in the basement. The chains had been sheared clean through and the sinister man was holding an axe.

Amidamaru saw him properly for the first time. He was quite young, about the same age as the samurai (minus the 600 years death experience). If it weren't for the decidedly confident smirk that was twisting the man's thin face, he might have been called handsome. Except for the scars. Amidamaru inhaled in shock.

The voodoo's face was riddled with scars, the most prominent being a long thin line that ran straight across his right eye, giving him a permanent slight squint. A cold draught from the basement swept the voodoo's shoulder length hair across his face. It was fascinating hair. It was light brown, but had so much natural red and gold in it that when the light caught it, it gave the appearance that the man's entire head was on fire.

He was wearing a loose linen shirt, the top button undone. There was a black necktie under the collar, and he was clutching his axe loosely to his side. Though he appeared casual, there was an underlying hint of danger.

The voodoo was surrounded by a strange black glow, which looked suspiciously familiar to the samurai.

"That's an oversoul!" Amidamaru stated in surprise. "You're a shaman?"

The voodoo sneered.

"Not quite."

Yoh and Ren arrived behind Amidamaru, but the samurai did not notice them. All he could see was his hated enemy, standing and gloating in front of him. A red mist was rising in front of his eyes, something he had not experienced for 600 years and something he had hoped he would never experience again.

"What's happening?" Yoh asked. Ren stared.

"He's going into a bloodlust!" He exclaimed suddenly. "He'll destroy anything in his way just to get at that man!"

The voodoo gripped his axe and Amidamaru launched himself, yelling, bringing his katana down for the fatal blow –

- which was blocked by the axehead. There was a grating sound of the metal colliding on metal. Sparks flew from the contact point. The voodoo brought his sneering face right up close to Amidamaru's snarling one.

Yoh and Ren watched as the fight began. The voodoo was certainly skilled with his axe, forcing Amidamaru in to the defensive, but Yoh was beginning to see why his samurai had been called the best.

Every one of Amidamaru's moves was calculated. It was as though he was playing a chess game in his mind, thinking two moves ahead, while all of the voodoo's attacks were impulsive. It was an intense fight that could still go either way.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the voodoo pulled away. Something flickered in his face – the cold, cruel eyes suddenly became wide and terrified, he started to stutter something.

"N-n-n..o.." the word was formed with difficulty, as though the person speaking had long ago lost the habit of speech. "N-no... _no!_"

Amidamaru seized his chance, slashing downwards with his sword and catching the voodoo on the left cheek, leaving a long deep slice.

The voodoo reeled backwards and regained control of himself. There was no hint of fear in his eyes as he contemptuously wiped the blood away from his face on his sleeve and spat at Amidamaru's feet.

The two weapons collided again, blood running in steady streams from the voodoo's face. With the sword and the axe locked together, Amidamaru did a complicated little flick. The axe went spinning away towards Yoh and Ren.

Amidamaru stiffened and suddenly broke away from the voodoo, who was grinning. The samurai's face was contorted with pain, a sudden closed expression. Yoh saw the handle sticking out of his left side. The voodoo had concealed a knife up his sleeve, and had struck when Amidamaru flicked his axe away.

Amidamaru pulled the stiletto out of his side and threw it away from him, swinging the sword. The flat of the blade caught the voodoo at the side of the head and the man fell to the floor, stunned.

Amidamaru dropped his sword; the bloodlust slowly evaporating. He clutched his injured side with one hand; the blood was seeping through his fingers. Yoh saw the wound through a rip in the warrior's robes. It was nasty, deep and serious.

"Amidamaru!" He called suddenly, seeing the danger. The voodoo had got to his feet again, hatred and rage clouding his face. Amidamaru's katana was clutched tightly in the sinister man's grip and he began towards the unarmed samurai, blood pouring down his face.

Amidamaru dropped down and grabbed the knife, which was laying by his feet. He watched the advancing voodoo calmly for a minute.

Amidamaru slung the knife expertly. There was a pitiful cry from the voodoo and then his body hit the opposite wall. The man's head lolled downwards in a parody of life, as though he was staring in shock at the handle protruding from his throat, at the blade embedded in it, though his once-cruel eyes were sightless and dead.

Amidamaru staggered a few steps towards the body and fell to his knees, inhaling in pain and clutching his side. He bent at the waist and the hand that had been holding his wound was flung out in front of him to support him as he landed on all fours, panting. He looked up at the body in front of him.

A black fog was coming from the voodoo's chest, though Amidamaru was not sure whether it was the man's spirit or just the fogs of unconsciousness coming to claim him. The strange mist evaporated and the voodoo's spirit tumbled out into the light.

His eyes were wide and he studied his translucent hands, puzzled. Then, as though only just realising it was there, he looked at the body, raising one hand to the knife through his throat. His hand passed straight through the handle.

The spirit laughed.

It was not the cold, cruel laugher that Amidamaru was used to, it was the happy, joyful laughter of someone who means it, who really has something to laugh about. There were tears shining in his eyes. It confused the samurai – what did the voodoo have to be happy about? He had just lost everything.

The voodoo's spirit was still laughing even as Bason descended on him, pummelling him, making sure he didn't escape.

Amidamaru's vision was swimming. He was vaguely aware of pain in his side, and there, above him, was Yoh's spinning face. The boy was grinning.

"Well done, Amidamaru." The shaman's words sounded from far away in the samurai's mind.

"You win."


	13. Pressing for Answers

Note: I apologise for the absolute crapness of this chapter, but it was quite awkward to write and, to be honest, I wasn't really in the mood. However, as promised, here it is.

---

Amidamaru was not quite sure how he got from the basement to his bed, but he assumed that either Yoh or Ren must have carried him, as, after the fight with the voodoo, he had been too weak to walk of his own accord.

He opened his eyes, wincing as the brightness of the room cut through his vision after the darkness he had been used to. The wound in his side gave a painful twinge and he inhaled sharply, automatically moving a hand down to clasp it.

There was a bandage around it, the white material sodden and bloody. It was quite tight, not loose like the one concealing the axe scar on his forehead, but it was not so tight that it hurt, or impaired his breathing.

"Hey, hero!" A voice above him chuckled. He looked up into Yoh's smiling face. The boy had a tray on which were biscuits and two glasses of water. "You're awake."

Amidamaru smiled and nodded painfully – he was aching in muscles he never even knew existed, and he couldn't quite recall what had happened in his fight while he had been under the influence of Bloodlust. He could only remember throwing the knife. How he had got the painful gash in his side was a mystery to him.

"This is for you." Yoh nudged a glass toward Amidamaru, who hauled himself agonisingly into a sitting position and moved an arm slowly to accept, grimacing every now and again as aches seared through the limb.

"And the biscuits?" Amidamaru nodded towards them and Yoh grinned.

"They're for me. Manta didn't think you'd be up to eating anything for the moment. He's the one who's been doing your bandages. Man, you've been in the wars recently!"

Amidamary raised an eyebrow. Yoh had never made such an understatement in his life. The samurai grunted as his side flared with pain.

"So what happened in the fight?" He asked. Yoh stared at him.

"You honestly don't remember? Seriously? It was awesome! You kicked butt!" The young shaman grinned at Amidamaru's look of tired indifference. "You got the guy in the cheek and made him drop his axe, but then he stabbed you in the side with a hidden knife, and then you kind of flipped and slammed him in the side of your head and knocked him out!"

"And then he came round and started again." Amidamaru finished. He knew the rest, of course. The moment he had knocked the other man down, the bloodlust had left and his eyes had regained their usual gentleness, which was present even when he was fighting or arguing.

"You know, Bason and Ren managed to catch him after he died." Yoh said casually, watching to see Amidamaru's reaction to this news. "Bason went and floored him when he was just standing there, laughing, and Anna came down and got him with her necklace. And you know how hard it is to escape from that!"

Amidamaru nodded, having had his own experience at the wrong end of the itako's blue beaded necklace.

"Er..." he began. "Where is he?"

"Basement." Yoh shrugged.

"May I... speak to him?" Amidamaru asked. Yoh smiled.

"Course! You can come with me later, when you're feeling a little better."

---

Amidamaru had remarkable skills of recovery. It must have been because of all the times he had been injured as a samurai, but he was able to walk properly by the late afternoon. He was still, admittedly, limping quite badly because of the positioning of the slash, but he was able to move around without support.

Yoh led the way down to the basement, hanging back when they got to the stairs in case Amidamaru, who was leaning heavily on the banister, should fall. The samurai stiffened and gasped as Yoh's supporting hand brushed against his wound. The shaman snatched the offending limb away as though he had been scalded.

"Do not worry about it." The samurai smiled kindly. Yoh smiled nervously back. He was still getting over the fact that Amidamaru could not pursue a relationship with him and had to exert all his self-control to stop himself kissing the samurai then and there.

Yoh produced a key, which he used to unlock the basement door.

"This is the only key to the basement." He explained to Amidamaru. "I think you should have it. After all, you have most reason to hate this man."

The door swung open and Amidamaru limped inside.

The voodoo's spirit was slumped dejectedly against the wall in the corner, Anna's blue necklace winding around him and imprisoning him. He was staring at the ceiling and did not turn or flinch when Amidamaru and Yoh entered.

Amidamaru was amazed at the difference between the spirit and the man as he had been in life. There was only one scar on the face of his soul – that terrible line which ran straight through his eye. His face was no longer twisted in rage, arrogance or cruelty; instead it was blank, with the trace of a smile hovering around the lips.

Amidamaru limped over and carefully lowered himself into a sitting position in front of the spirit, while Yoh chose to lean casually against the wall, keeping a watchful eye over the two.

The ghost in front of him made no sign of having noticed him, and Amidamaru sat staring at the shadow of his former tormentor for a while before waving a hand in front of the voodoo's eyes once. The spirit was so shocked that he flinched backwards, and may even have passed through the wall if it wasn't for Anna's necklace.

"I-I'm sorry..." He managed at last, after calming down a little. "I didn't see you come in. You startled me."

Amidamaru nodded curtly, though inside he was confused. The voodoo hadn't seemed like the sort of man who would be openly surprised at anything, and he definitely hadn't been the sort to apologise.

"I've come for an explanation. And an apology." He snapped. The voodoo opened his mouth, as though to say something, changed his mind and compromised by inhaling deeply and frowning at the floor.

"Then you have my heartfelt apologies." He said at last. "I should not have abused you like I did and I am truly sorry."

Amidamaru stared.

Yoh exploded.

"That's _it_?" He yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the spirit. "You invaded his privacy and his body in the worst possible way, and all you can think to say is 'I am truly sorry'?"

The voodoo hung his head.

"I understand." He whispered. "But I cannot express such an apology in words and I therefore did not attempt to."

"Then maybe you should try explaining." Amidamaru subjected the voodoo to a cool stare that went on for a few seconds after the comfort-zone. The spirit swallowed purely out of habit.

"I-I was showing my affections for you..." The sentence trailed off into silence, leaving both samurai and shaman staring incredulously at the man.

"You showed your affections for me by torturing me and raping me?" Amidamaru asked at last. The voodoo cringed away.

"It – it was how my father always – always showed his affection for me..." Again, the sentence seemed to finish prematurely, as the ghost was embarrassed or ashamed of saying it. "After my mother died when I was six..." he added as an afterthought.

"He would assault you?" Yoh asked suspiciously, his eyes narrowing. The voodoo's face darkened and his closed eyes appeared to be staring at the floor.

"Yes." He said quietly after a long pause. "yes. I remember speaking to my school friends when I was very young, younger than you. I was so naïve. I asked them all if their fathers loved them like mine loved me, and they said no. They said that their fathers didn't have sex with them, and they asked me where I got the bruises and my father had told me to tell everyone that I was clumsy and fell down stairs a lot, so that's what I said..." his eyes seemed to mist over as he recalled the past.

"The taunts and the psuedo dominance games too?" Amidamaru asked gently. The voodoo buried his head in his hands and nodded, the chain of blue beads clinking softly around his waist.

"He did it all for me. And then he died and I was alone, and no one loved me..." There was a definite sob in the voodoo's voice, but Amidamaru suspected that, though it was coming from some memory, it was not the memory of which the voodoo was telling. "And then there was you, and Yokiama succeeded in reincarnating you, and you were beautiful, and I tried to tell you that I loved you but you didn't seem to love me back, so I tried to tell you how strong my love was... and you ran away from me..."

Yoh looked questioningly at Amidamaru, who was studying the translucent face in front of him curiously. The young shaman could tell from the glint in Amidamaru's eye that, though he himself did not believe a word of the voodoo's story, the samurai did. Maybe not all of it, but he believed some of it had a hint of truth.

"Hmm..." The samurai rose unsteadily, gripping Yoh for support. "I shall leave you down here until I decide whether I believe you or not, and then I shall ask my friends to choose what they think is a suitable punishment."

"You are being far too lenient." The spirit's hoarse voice cut through their minds. "I do not deserve your kindness."

"No." Yoh snapped as he walked through the door, helping the limping samurai along. "No, you do not."

Amidamaru, however, was silent.


	14. Three Great Tests

**Warning: w00t for Lemony freshness! (interpretation: - there is mild lemon in this chapter. If that scares you, leave. You have been warned)**

**Note: longer chapter with extra action for all you slash fans! (just think of it as my birthday treat for you – it's my birthday!)**

-

Amidamaru limped down to the basement in the dead of night, taking great pains not to make a sound. He paused outside the door before noiselessly opening it and entering.

The voodoo's spirit was, as before, huddled in the corner, secured by Anna's necklace, which ran tightly round his translucent body. The spirit looked up blankly as the door closed behind Amidamaru. The warrior hastened over to the other man.

"Here," he said hurriedly, bending down, his long, quick fingers dancing nimbly over the beads. "I'm letting you go. Leave, don't hang around here."

The voodoo's spectral face was a mask of surprise as the chain of blue beads fell away.

"Why are you doing this for me?" He asked, the disbelief evident in his voice.

"Leave, before I change my mind." Amidamaru responded curtly, avoiding the question he did not know the answer to. The other man took the hint, rising to ghostly feet. He did not, however, make any other move.

"Why are you doing this?" He repeated, and Amidamaru's demeanour faltered. For a reason he could not make clear, he was feeling slightly breathless around the voodoo, and it was not long before the other man noticed.

"Close your eyes and show me your neck." His tone, though commanding, was not as conceitedly imperious as the samurai was used to. Amidamaru hesitated, though only for a second before he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, exposing his throat. He swallowed, though whether with nervousness or anticipation even he could not tell.

The voodoo slid one semi-visible hand round the back of the samurai's neck and placed a ghostly but gentle kiss on the coarse skin just below Amidamaru's adam's apple.

"You're mine." He whispered seductively in the young swordsman's ear, pulling away as Amidamaru gave a small groan.

"Why do you obey me?" The voodoo's voice was husky as he asked the panting warrior what was on his mind.

"I suppose I am used to having a master and following commands." Amidamaru shrugged elegantly with one shoulder. "In all my existence I have been told what to do." The samurai tried and failed to sound nonchalant and the voodoo caught the hidden meaning behind the words.

"My god." He said incredulously. "I really hurt you, didn't I?"

Amidamaru nodded slowly and the voodoo looked ashamedly at the floor.

"I admire your bravery." He stated flatly. "What I did to you was truly dreadful, and yet you can still face me, and talk to me as though I am human."

"You're dead." Amidamaru replied in the same tone of voice. "You are not a threat to me anymore."

"How can I hope you will ever forgive me?" The voodoo buried his head in his hands. Amidamaru glanced at the sad, forlorn figure, remembering the kiss that lingered on his throat.

"What you did to me was inexcusable." He said at last. "But I am willing to give you a second chance."

The voodoo's head shot up.

"Why?" He asked, astonished.

"Because I trust you." The samurai said simply. "After what you said earlier... and besides," he paused. "I need a master."

"You... you _mean_ that? After what I did?"

"What you did is in the past, and everyone deserves a second chance..." The warrior exhaled, memories flashing through his mind. "You have proved to me that you can be gentle," his voice dropped a tone, low and sonorous. "Your earlier kiss was enough to show that."

"I'll make it up to you!" The voodoo promised desperately, his face tinged with hope. "I'll... I'll do whatever you want!"

But Amidamaru shook his head.

"I'm no one's master." He said gently. "_You_ can control. _You_ can command. Tell me what _you_ want."

The voodoo blinked and watched Amidamaru's face as he uttered a reply.

"I want to please you. I – I want to feel you squirm beneath me. I want to hear you call my name..."

"How can I?" The samurai sighed. "I don't even know what your name is."

"Katsumi." The voodoo said smoothly. "My name is Katsumi Kibuko."

_Katsumi Kibuko_. At long last Amidamaru could put a name to the face that had haunted his dreams for the last couple of weeks.

And Amidamaru grinned.

"You are an expert on the carnal arts, then?" He asked jokingly. Kastumi smiled wryly.

"I only know what my father taught me, and he mostly taught me about dominance. And I know_ that_ shone through in our first meeting." Amidamaru nodded in silent agreement, the still – healing scar prominent and dark on his forehead. The deep wound in his side twinged and he grimaced in pain. There was a pause; Katsumi had not noticed the samurai's falter. He sighed, and then Amidamaru's whispered words cut through the air.

"Teach me."

"What?" Katsumi blinked in amazement.

"Teach me." The swordsman repeated, leaning back casually. "I'm willing to let you do what you want to me, within reason, so teach me what you know."

The spirit hesitated and Amidamaru gave a slight nod to confirm his permission.

The fingers of Katsumi's right hand clasped those of Amidamaru's left, interlocking as though they were a woven tapestry. Both men closed their eyes as their lips crashed together. Amidamaru could tell that Katsumi was trying his hardest to be gentle, to not scare him by reverting to what he had been taught, but the kisses were still heated and frenzied. There were no build-ups, as there were with Yoh, Katsumi's tongue was teasing Amidamaru's front the start, exploring every crevice of the samurai's mouth.

Ghostly fingers slipped the white cloak off the young swordsman's shoulders and began undoing the tie that held the robes around his middle. Katsumi trailed kisses and nips along every bit of flesh revealed as he undressed the samurai until he reached the other man's bare chest.

The voodoo's mouth closed around Amidamaru's left nipple and the samurai's entire body jolted in pleasure as the spirit sucked it, licked it, kneaded it with his teeth. His hand mimicked the actions on the swordsman's other nipple, teasing and torturing it. Amidamaru panted and writhed under the attentions.

The voodoo suddenly pulled away but Amidamaru's moan of frustration was stifled by the ghost's mouth coming down upon his own again. Katsumi let Amidamaru's tongue probe his mouth as he slipped the remaining material off the form underneath him.

The spirit drew slowly away to explore his latest discovery, to study what he had uncovered. Amidamaru's lithe, oiled body glistened, the toned sinewy muscles beneath the skin flowed smoothly into each other like liquid. A thin trail of silvery hair started at the samurai's navel and led down to his groin, where his length was hard and throbbing.

Katsumi's eyes roved hungrily over the naked samurai, lingering on the other man's shaft for a while as Amidamaru caught his breath. The voodoo's eyes were drawn to the bloodstained bandages that covered the last terrible wound he had inflicted on the samurai, and he sighed heavily.

"I am so sorry..." He whispered. Amidamaru followed his eyes and smiled kindly.

"It will heal." He said shortly. The voodoo nodded sadly and averted his gaze back to Amidamaru's length.

"May I?" He asked quietly, waiting for the samurai's permission. Amidamaru smiled and nodded once.

Katsumi rested his head next to Amidamaru's and his hand snaked down to gently grasp Amidamaru's shaft. The warrior's breathing quickened into a hoarse, ragged pant. The spirit rubbed his thumb along the swordsman's cock, and an animalistic moan erupted from Amidamaru's throat.

"Do you like that?" Katsumi whispered, tilting his head to nibble Amidamaru's earlobe. Sweat streamed down the samurai's face.

"Oh... gods..." he panted. "_gods!_"

Katsumi began rhythmatically moving his hand up and along, and Amidamaru's body jerked, his hips bucked into the voodoo's hand, a subconscious demand for more. The voodoo sped up, stroking the other man faster and applying more pressure; Amidamaru's thrusts became more desperate, his breath coming in short gasps. Suddenly his stomach muscles contracted and he climaxed with an intense release.

Amidamaru screamed Katsumi's name over and over again as he came, exploding in a rush of white. He collapsed backward, breathing heavily, completely spent. Katsumi wiped his soiled hand on his trousers and floated next to the samurai, whose entire body gleamed with sweat.

"You know," He murmured into the panting swordsman's ear. "It might have been me hearing things, but I could have sworn that one time you called me 'Yoh'."

But Amidamaru was beyond hearing.

---

Katsumi looked at the sleeping Amidamaru. He had never seen the young warrior so relaxed, but that was probably because there was no way Amidamaru _could_ relax in their previous meetings.

Katsumi had found it hard, living with another personality in his own body. After his father had virtually destroyed him in his childhood, his ego had diminished so much that it almost did not fill his body. Then, on his fourteenth birthday, his father had died in "mysterious circumstances" that involved drugs, a gun and a very large debt.

The younger Katsumi did not have to wait long to be reunited with his father; the first morning after the death, he had woken up to find that his father's spirit had invaded his body. Katsumi was forced to the very back of his mind as his father took control of his body and actions.

Katsumi loathed being a slave to his father's parasitic ghost, but he could not fight back; the other spirit had complete control. Katsumi had no choice but to watch as his father murdered first three of his school friends and then, much more recently, his partner Yokiama Osume.

Katsumi remembered when he had first seen Amidamaru. He had woken to find his father torturing someone and he had been horrified when he saw the beautiful young man chained at his feet, covered in blood and yet still able to glare in defiance and hatred. He had found himself punching the warrior in the face when all he really wanted to do was stroke his cheek, hold him in his arms, comfort him and tell him everything would be ok.

He had been punished for thinking like that, but the fire that had been lit burned inside him, He knew that, given the opportunity, his father would abuse Amidamaru continuously until the handsome young samurai was little more than an emotionless slave; a sex zombie. A toy that did not fight back.

So the young voodoo had been, to some extent, angry and certainly upset at Yoh's arrival, which created another potential victim. His father had been distracted and Katsumi had seized his opportunity, taking control of his body for a split second, preventing any harm coming to the boy. He had been punished for that, too. He had been knocked unconscious by the strength of his father's willpower and was not awake to witness the prisoners' escape. If he had been conscious, he might have been able to prevent his father from being so enthusiastic with the axe.

He had regained full awareness in the middle of the fight with Amidamaru. In the moments his father had been distracted and he had control of his body, Amidamaru had slashed his cheek open with the katana. Katsumi had been beaten down by his father, though he had silently cried out when his oppressor stabbed the samurai in the side.

And then Amidamaru had thrown the knife. His aim was true and it had lodged in the throat of his body. He could recall his father's enraged roar, a wrench at his gut as the connection between him, his father and his body was severed and then an odd feeling of freedom as the black mist of his father's soul dissolved and he looked at his own dead body, at last able to exercise his free will. About half a minute later he was set upon by Bason.

Yoh and Amidamaru had come to visit him as he was imprisoned and he had apologised for his father's behaviour as though it was his own, making excuses and confessing a fraction of the horrors he had experienced as a child.

And then Amidamaru had let him go.

The samurai had trusted him enough to give him a second chance. Surely he had shown Amidamaru that his decision was the right one? Even now the naked samurai lay asleep next to him, covered only by his white cloak, which Katsumi had struggled to throw over him.

Amidamaru woke with a start, grunting sleepily, his eyes flickering open and drifting over the translucent Katsumi.

"Morning, my sexy samurai." The young voodoo crooned, his hand gently caressing the other man's cheek. "Sleep well?"

Amidamaru yawned and stretched, nodding. As he pulled himself into a sitting position, his cloak slid down his body, revealing his strong, muscular torso. Almost automatically, his hand moved, clasping around his belt and tying it around his middle, making the cloak into a kilt-like garment. He stood, testing his makeshift clothing, and padded swiftly to the bathroom to shave, Katsumi following close behind him.

Shaving had become a routine for Amidamaru since his reincarnation. It had annoyed him at first, as one of the things he had enjoyed about dying was the fact that he _didn't have to shave_, but now he was used to it again. He whipped the razor round his cheek with practised ease, pausing every now and again to cleanse it in the sink.

"You missed a bit." Katsumi pointed out.

"Where?"

"Just there, let me – "

Amidamaru froze as the razor nicked a patch of stubble away from his neck. He watched as Katsumi stared at the blade.

"Go ahead." He said softly. "Slit my throat."

Katsumi dropped the razor.

"W-what?" He choked. The samurai studied him calmly.

"Cut my throat. You were thinking about it yesterday when you told me to close my eyes and expose my neck, and you were considering it just now. All I'm saying is that I'm half naked and helpless, and if you do decide to then I will make no move to stop you.

Katsumi habitually swallowed. Amidamaru had read his mind.

"But... you..." he stuttered.

"It won't kill me, but it will leave a scar."

Katsumi backed away, wide-eyed and shaking. Amidamaru approached him concernedly.

"You... how did you... know...?" The samurai could see that the voodoo was close to tears.

"I guessed." Amidamaru put a hand on the spirit's shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly. "I'm sorry... it was just a stupid test, if I had known it would affect you like this I would never have asked... please... forgive me."

Katsumi nodded, burying his head in the taller warrior's shoulder, sobbing.

"I'm sorry." He said suddenly, pulling away and wiping his eyes. "I'm being stupid. I love you."

"And I... love you too." Amidamaru swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat, trying hard not the think about Yoh. He felt like a monster, betraying the trust of the person he cared about most in the world, but there was something darkly fascinating about the voodoo, and once he had been first drawn in to the other man's power, it only needed Katsumi to show him the pleasure he had and Amidamaru had no hope of escaping.

"There's something about you I can't quite place." The samurai said eventually, frowning slightly. "You are no longer arrogant and conceited, as you were when you were alive. You are caring and kind. People don't change in the blink of an eye. When you were alive you tortured and raped me, but in death you show me heaven. I can see it in your face, too. It is... softer. Not as mean nor contemptuous as it was..." the young warrior placed his hand on Katsumi's chin and tilted the voodoo's head up, forcing the ghost to look him in the eye. "It's got something to do with that shadow I saw, hasn't it? The black mist that disappeared just after you died?"

Katsumi slumped forward in Amidamaru's strong arms, nodding with relief, feeling the samurai's breath across his hair. Amidamaru bent his head forward and Katsumi strained up, placing a small, gentle kiss on the healing axewound. The samurai inhaled sharply and straightened up, shaking his head slightly before bringing his hand up to the scar that ran through Katsumi's eye.

"How did you get this?" He asked quietly, the tips of his fingers brushing lightly against the mark. Katsumi tilted his head further in to Amidamaru's hand and sighed.

"It is just a scar." He shrugged. Amidamaru smiled sadly.

"It is a psychological scar; flesh wounds do not show up on ghosts. I was injured many times at my execution, but not one mark shows in my soul. This scarred your soul, it traumatised you. No other of your scars show up on your ghost, you had far more than this when you were alive."

Katsumi looked up bleakly.

"You are smart." He said with a small, humourless half-chuckle. "I cannot hide anything from you. Very well..." his words were punctuated by another sigh. "It is to me a reminder of my childhood and the consequences when one failed to please a master."

"Your father did that?" The samurai asked, and he looked away as Katsumi nodded.

"Yes." The young voodoo paused. "He used a carving knife. It was the..." his lips moved as he silently recalled the incident. "...day after my mother died. It was the first time he used me for sex... I... don't think I did very well..." the edges of his mouth turned upwards, still trying the smile and laugh even as the tears spilled from his eyes.

Amidamaru placed one soft finger over the other man's lips, looking kindly down at him.

"You do not have to be ashamed." The warrior murmured. "you have a reason for being upset."

"Hmm..." Katsumi looked at the floor for a moment and Amidamaru politely averted his gaze as the other man dried his eyes. Katsumi suddenly brightened up.

"What day is it?" He asked. Amidamaru blinked – the question was certainly unexpected.

"Er... Sunday, I think."

"Got anything to do today?"

"Not that I am aware of. Why?"

"I was wondering if you, y'know, wanted to go back to your room and..." Katsumi let his sentence hang, brushing his hand lightly over Amidamaru's crotch, applying just enough pressure to make the samurai want more.

"Not my room." Amidamaru blinked again, trying to ignore the heat that was gathering in his nether regions. "Someone might hear." _Yoh might hear_... "Basement is good. I'm the only one with a key. And besides, the rest of my clothes are down there."

The samurai mock-scowled at the voodoo's cheeky smirk, but his playful growl was cut short as Katsumi's hand again strayed downward.

"Ok, ok..." he gasped, "you win... let's... unh..."

Katsumi smiled, placing a kiss on the warrior's cheek. Amidamaru's breathing was speeding up and the voodoo could feel the man's shaking.

"I knew you'd see it my way..." Katsumi's heavy – lidded eyes were half closed with desire. Amidamaru's breath caught as the exploring hand rested on his erection.

"Not here..." The shake of Amidamaru's head was more like a twitch. "basement... oh gods..."

Katsumi took pity on the warrior trembling in front of him, knowing that Amidamaru was completely under his control.

"Come on, then." He said, withdrawing his hand and catching the swordsman as he fell limply against him.

The walk down to the basement was short and swift, with Katsumi keen and eager and Amidamaru literally aching for more.

Once the samurai had made sure that the door was locked, he casually pulled away the skirt-like cloak that covered his lower body. Katsumi once again feasted his eyes on the object of his desire, placing one hand on the other man's bare chest and sliding it downwards slowly.

Amidamaru caught Katsumi's hand.

"I don't believe in repeat performances of that kind." He whispered gently, and, seeing the voodoo's sorrowful downcast face, he added "besides... I want to properly see you... if I have your permission?"

It was another test. If Katsumi refused, Amidamaru would know that he was not really interested, that he only wanted Amidamaru to get his kicks from.

"Of... of course..." Katsumi swallowed and undid his black necktie, throwing it away from him.

"Allow me." Amidamaru interrupted, beginning, with some difficulty, to undo the buttons of the semi-solid shirt, the voodoo guiding his hands. After a while, the shirt fell to the floor.

Katsumi had the appearance of someone naturally thin who had lost a lot of weight in a short time. He looked strong and lean, physically fit, but the muscles were shrunken and wasted. Amidamaru leaned back to get the entire picture.

"I realise that I am not as hot as you..." Katsumi nibbled his lower lip nervously, looking anxiously at Amidamaru, who smiled kindly.

"It is not just muscles that make a person sexy." He said, stroking the voodoo's red-gold hair.

The samurai's hands moved down to undo Katsumi's trousers, slipping them down to the floor. His eyes saw, for the first time, the voodoo's manhood, and he realised just how beautiful Katsumi was, in his own special way.

The vibrant flames of his hair contrasted exquisitely with his soft, dead grey eyes, one of which was slightly narrower than the other because of the thin scar that ran across it. Though he looked starved to the point of emaciation, he actually managed to make it look attractive as though it was a fashion and not an illness.

Amidamaru all but fell into the voodoo priest's arms as the other man moved a sly hand down to gently rub a thumb against him. Unfortunately, that was the precise moment that Anna knocked at the door.

"Amidamaru? Are you down there?"

Both men froze, the samurai trying hard not to cry out in pleasure as Katsumi evilly continued petting his length. Both watched as the door handle turned, thankful that Amidamaru had had the sense to lock it.

"Sorry..." Katsumi coughed, trying to keep his hoarse voice free of concealed mirth as Amidamaru writhed in his hand. "I'm the only one down here..."

"I didn't ask _you_!" Anna spat from the other side of the door, but they heard her receding footsteps. When he was sure she could no longer hear, Amidamaru let out his pent up erotic groan, falling to his knees. Katsumi looked down at him, momentarily confused, but his puzzlement soon turned to ecstasy and both of his hands plunged to tangle in Amidamaru's silvery hair as the samurai took him in his mouth.

The young swordsman alternated between grazing his teeth gently against the voodoo's shaft and withdrawing completely to run his tongue along and around it, drawing whimpers and squirming from the figure in front of him.

Katsumi's hips bucked violently and Amidamaru knew that the voodoo was reaching his climax. The warrior slipped a hand underneath to gently tickle the bottom of the other man's erection.

The voodoo yelled, tugging frantically on Amidamaru's long pale hair as he released in the samurai's mouth. His knees buckled and he collapsed on top of the other man, breathing heavily.

"You are _so_ good at that..." He gasped as Amidamaru wiped his mouth, grinning like the cat who had got the, well... cream. The young warrior waited for Katsumi to recover a bit and then began pulling his robes on.

"What are you doing?" The voodoo priest asked uncertainly.

"Didn't you hear Anna calling for me?" Amidamaru responded, tying his silk belt. "She probably has some jobs for me. I would have gone when she first came down here, but I had a favour to repay."

The young samurai smiled at the stunned voodoo and then made his way out of the basement, locking the door behind him.

---

Anna had been livid that Amidamaru had not come when she was first calling, and gave both Yoh and Manta the day off just to spite him the samurai, commanding him to do their jobs as well as his own. If there was the smallest bit of dust, or if the job was not finished to her satisfaction, the poor young warrior would be made to do the entire task again repeatedly until she was happy with it.

Katsumi snuck up to Amidamaru's room in the early evening to visit his new friend. He knocked softly and opened the door a fraction. The sight took his breath away.

Amidamaru was curled up in a foetal position on his bed, still fully dressed. He was fast asleep. Katsumi tiptoed over to the sleeping samurai, who was so exhausted after Anna's punishment that he did not even have the energy to crawl under the covers.

The young swordsman rolled over on to his back, murmuring something and sighing in his sleep. Katsumi looked at the pale-haired man, running a finger around his cheeks, the coarseness of the man's stubble grazing his skin. Amidamaru stirred, a slight moan erupting from his throat.

Katsumi leant over Amidamaru and placed a kiss on the samurai's lips, starting in mild surprise as the warrior began responding in his sleep.

Amidamaru began to wake up and the young voodoo straightened up as the swordsman's eyes drifted open.

"Katsumi?" He asked drowsily. "What are you doing here?"

"I missed you." The voodoo answered, nuzzling in to Amidamaru.

"You shouldn't have come." The samurai said sadly. "what if someone caught you?"

"I only wanted to see you again..." Katsumi swallowed. "You never said goodnight."

Amidamaru looked guiltily at the floor.

"I'm sorry." He whispered at last. "Would you like me to make it up to you?"

"I would like that very much." The voodoo answered, leaning towards Amidamaru. Amidamaru supported himself on his elbows to close the gap and Katsumi rested Amidamaru's head with one hand and supported the samurai's back with his other as their lips met. Amidamaru rested his hands on Katsumi's shoulders, steadily applying more pressure, pulling the voodoo closer to him.

"Hey, Amidamaru!" The door swung fully open, revealing Yoh, who was carrying a drink on a tray. "This should stop your muscles aching – oh, my god!"

The glass shattered when it hit the floor, splashing liquid everywhere, but Yoh didn't seem to notice. He was staring, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, at Amidamaru and Katsumi.

"Yoh..." Amidamaru began, pulling away from the voodoo, looking at Yoh, who was spluttering incoherently.

"You...you..."

"Yoh, please..." Amidamaru looked on the verge of tears, his voice laced with desperation.

"You and him!"

"Yoh..."

"I thought you were just feeling guilty about cradle-snatching, but now I know the truth!" Yoh was beside himself with anger. "If you _like_ being a sex slave to that... that _monster_ then _fine_!" He slammed out of the room, leaving Katsumi standing awkwardly over a stunned Amidamaru.

"Yoh..." The samurai breathed, a single tear sliding down his cheek.


	15. Forgive and Forget

Amidamaru sat back in the bed dejectedly. The whole thing had been a test, a ploy to see whether the voodoo had been lying or not. Amidamaru hated setting anyone up, even the person who had caused him so much pain and suffering, but... he had to be sure. He thought he had acted the part out quite well.

But it had lost him everything.

The only person he really cared for – Yoh – was probably never going to speak to him again. And what for? So that he knew whether some stupid voodoo was lying to him or not? Why did he care so much when it would have been easy to just send Anna down there to exorcise him?

Well, at least now he was sure that Katsumi had been telling the truth, maybe not the whole truth, but it was true enough that the voodoo had been sexually harassed by an abusive father. Amidamaru felt like a user. Was it fair to set up someone who had already been through hell? It seemed like Katsumi really loved him.

The least he could do was to apologise to Katsumi. The samurai felt it was owed to the voodoo, especially after the intensity of their interchanges.

After Yoh had slammed out of the room, Katsumi had apologised to Amidamaru and floated off down to the basement, where he now sat in his corner with a dreamy smile and a slightly unfocused look in his eyes, as though he wasn't quite sure where he was, but there was nowhere on earth he would rather be.

Now Amidamaru sat alone on his bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering whether Yoh would ever look at him again. He had betrayed his best friend, his master, his shaman. Yoh was the only life he knew, the only way he had managed to survive his recent ordeals, the only reason he had almost recovered from his mental breakdown. And now... what? Would there just be a blankness? A void where Yoh was once in his arms? A dip in the sheets of the bed where the young shaman's body had once rested?

Amidamaru's head hung, ashamed. He did not deserve to sleep in the bed, beds were for humans.

Everyone knew dogs slept on the floor.

---

Yoh sat in the dining room with Ren, Manta, Horo Horo and Bason, scowling into his drink. He felt betrayed; he had really believed that Amidamaru loved him. Who would have thought that the samurai could be so cold hearted?

He could hardly tell anyone here. Manta would just smirk in a superior way and say "I told you so", referring back to the beginning when he had insisted that Amidamaru was evil. Horo Horo might listen, but everything with the Ainu went straight out of the other ear.

Ren would understand, and Ren would probably be sympathetic. But would the Tao ever look at Yoh again after the shaman admitted he was gay and dating his guardian ghost? Ren had sneered enough when Yoh had said Amidamaru was his friend, what would he do when Yoh said Amidamaru was his lover? It had taken Yoh long enough to become friends with Ren anyway, he wasn't going to throw that away. And Bason? Yoh didn't really know Bason well enough – the Chinese warrior usually stayed out of sight, following a Tao tradition: spirits should be not seen and not heard unless fighting.

At that moment there was a creak as the door swung open, revealing a forlorn looking Amidamaru, who wandered disjointedly towards the kitchen. The samurai froze when he saw Yoh. Yoh gave Amidamaru his dirtiest look and the warrior backed out of the room, blinking the moistness out of his eyes.

"What was all that about?" Manta asked, confused. Horo Horo looked just as confused as the short boy, but there was something else in Ren's eyes. He looked calculating, as though he could see something that the others could not.

"There's something I should know about, isn't there?" The Chinese shaman whispered, pulling Yoh aside from the others. Bason followed behind his master, but at a slight shake of the head from Ren, floated back to the table again.

Yoh stared at Ren for a moment.

"You already know, don't you?" He said at last. "You're such a suspicious bastard that you've already worked it out!"

"Bits of it." Ren admitted. "But there are still quite a few gaping holes that I need you to fill in."

"He's betrayed me." Yoh confessed, feeling quite relieved that Ren seemed to understand and had not disowned Yoh's friendship as soon as he found out the other shaman was a queer. "I feel so used, Ren, I really thought he loved me."

Ren studied Yoh's face closely.

"I'll go and have a word with Amidamaru."

---

Ren met up with Yoh again in the garden, where Yoh was sitting on the decking, watching the clouds.

"I spoke with Amidamaru." The Tao said, and Yoh perked up slightly, watching as the other shaman sat down next to him. "It was quite pitiful, really."

Yoh nodded, aware of how aloof the other could be at times, but it seemed that Ren was serious.

"The first thing I saw when I walked in the room was the blanket on the floor. He was lying underneath it. I asked him what he was doing and the answer was quite saddening." Ren sighed. "He told me that dogs sleep on the floor."

Yoh's heart gave a twang. Was it – could it be possible that he was wrong, that Amidamaru had not betrayed him? It certainly sounded as though he was upset... but... it could all be an act...

"I talked to him about you," Ren continued, "And he told me that he would gladly take his own life a thousand times over if he thought it would repay half the debt he feels is owed to you."

Yoh swallowed, but his resolve hardened at the thought of what Amidamaru had been doing with the voodoo and _what else had he done before?_ The young shaman shook his head, trying to clear away the sudden images that swamped him.

"I promised Amidamaru that I would take your response back to him." Ren told Yoh. "What am I to say to him?"

Yoh hesitated. What could he say that could possibly convey his feelings to his samurai? He was so confused, so mixed up... he thought that he hated Amidamaru, but whenever he tried to imagine his revenge he would get caught up in what the young warrior had been through, back in the cell, and he would realise that he really did love the swordsman.

"Tell him..." the image of the samurai kissing the voodoo sped across Yoh's vision as though played on a movie screen. "Tell him to go fuck himself. I don't want anything to do with him anymore."

Ren nodded sadly.

"As you wish."

---

Katsumi sat in the basement, staring happily at the ceiling. It had been nice, to have a samurai as fit as Amidamaru wave him goodbye from earth, but it was time for him to leave. He did not think he could apologise to Amidamaru; it would surely break the samurai's heart. The young swordsman seemed to really love him.

It had been interesting, being alive. It hadn't been the best experience, of course, what with his father possessing him for all of his adult life, and now he was ready to see what it was like on the other side.

A blinding golden light filled the basement.

---

Amidamaru wandered sadly down to the basement. Yoh's reaction when they had bumped into each other in the dining room had not inspired confidence, neither had the interchange with Ren. Now he was set to break Katsumi's heart. He sighed heavily, leaning on the banister for support as his side wound gave a painful twinge.

He opened the door of the basement, which he didn't even bother to keep locked. Katsumi was there, sitting by the wall. Or, at least, someone who looked a lot like Katsumi, even down to the scar through the eye, but there were subtle differences. There was a sneer playing about the mouth and the eyes were narrow.

"Ah, Amidamaru." The voodoo spat. "We meet again."

Amidamaru swallowed. He knew he was face to face with the very person who had raped him.

"What have you done with him?" The samurai asked at last. The figure in front of him laughed coldly.

"If you are meaning my son, you need not worry. He has merely departed for the spirit world. He was always such a weak, pathetic little thing. I was sometimes ashamed to admit he was my son! I loathed having to inhabit _his_ body, you know. We looked so alike in life, it was almost poetic. I seemed to have picked up little, shall we say, characteristics from him, I've possessed him for so long." One hand indicated the scar across the voodoo's eye.

"You possessed him?" Amidamaru asked in disbelief. Everything was becoming clear – Katsumi had been taking the blame for his _father's_ actions, it had not been him that had tortured Amidamaru, but his_ father_.

"Of course," The voodoo said idly, watching the samurai as though bored. "You have a much stronger will than he ever had and I must say," the smirking form moved fluidly closer to Amidamaru. "you _fascinate_ me."

Amidamaru, almost in a panic, drew one sword and swung it impulsively at the voodoo, who laughed as he dodged out of the way.

"You cannot hurt me!" He gloated. "You are painfully slow. In an instant I could be right here!"

The sinister man was suddenly right by Amidamaru's side. One cold hand was flung upwards to grab Amidamaru's chin, while the other was dragged up the samurai's inner thigh to his crotch. The voodoo thrust his tongue in the young swordsman's mouth, and laughed as the samurai jerked away.

"Delicious." He sneered and Amidamaru's jaw clenched as he again swung his blade. The voodoo jumped back, laughing as the metal sliced the air in front of him.

He reappeared by Amidamaru's side again and grabbed a fistful of the samurai's long silvery hair, wrenching it backwards so far that the warrior squinted, his head pulled back and his neck exposed. With his spare hand, the voodoo began tracing elaborate patterns of red scratches across Amidamaru's throat.

"Beautiful." Was the word he breathed. Amidamaru swung his katana for a third time, but this time the voodoo did not dodge. Instead the blade passed straight through him.

"Fool!" He laughed coldly. "You cannot hurt me, as I have already said!"

"But you are solid!" Amidamaru gasped as the voodoo let go of his hair and he was able to straighten up. The man in front of him ignored this.

"I hear you gave my son the opportunity to slit your throat."

"Only because I was quite sure that he wouldn't." Amidamaru protested. The voodoo grinned, but there was no humour in that smile.

"Be sure that _I_ will not _slit_ your throat either." He hissed, before lunging at the samurai.

---

Yoh had heard the sounds of the fight in the cellar and his first thought was for Amidamaru – _what if he's hurt? Or worse? How could I ever forgive myself, he was so upset..._

Yoh sprinted down the corridor. Why had he been so stupid? He had been given the opportunity to forgive the samurai, to make it up, but his own arrogance had stepped in and prevented him from doing so. It might now be too late...

He flung the basement door open, and a horrible sight greeted his eyes.

The voodoo was crouched down, Amidamaru's limp body draped across the floor next to him. The samurai's unconscious head was cradled in one hand and his neck bent across the voodoo's knee. The sinister man had bitten into the swordsman's throat and was even now drinking his blood.

"You're a vampire?" Yoh gasped in surprise. The figure in front of him looked up, a trickle of Amidamaru's blood running from his chin. His shirt was soaked with blood and he smirked, revealing one sharp, reddened, gore stained canine.

"You didn't realise?" The voodoo sneered, leaping away and standing upright. Amidamaru's head fell to the floor with a dull thud and lolled to one side. "I gave you so many clues and still you were ignorant?" The voodoo rolled his eyes. "Then you are as fool as the samurai was."

"Don't insult him!" Yoh snapped angrily, biting back the tears. He would not let his enemy see a weakness, even if he had injured Amidamaru so much that there would be no hope of recovery. "Not after everything else you've done!"

"Ah, my boy," There was what might have been called a sigh from the vampire. "You see, the more I drink the more solid I become and the stronger I become. And that is something I have wanted for ten long years."

"Why Amidamaru?" Yoh demanded. There was another sick grin from the figure in front of him, whose red-gold hair was whipping round his face in a cool breeze.

"Because he was strong willed and I can never resist a challenge." There was a derisive half-chuckle. "I wanted to see if I could break him. And I could."

"Then destroying you will be a pleasure!" Yoh snarled, grabbing Amidamaru's sword from where it had fallen from the warrior's limp grasp and swiping wildly at the vampire. Who laughed.

"You are not nearly as good as the samurai was. And even he could not hit me." He mocked. Yoh snarled again, knowing it was true. Without integrating or bonding somehow with Amidamaru, he could not hope to be anywhere near as skilled with a katana as he was in the shaman fights.

There was a hiss from the air behind him and he looked round to see the voodoo lunging at his neck. It was only Yoh's quickness that saved his life. Like lightning, he flung his head to one side, inhaling in pain as the vampire's teeth sunk in to his shoulder.

_Every time I drink I become stronger._ Was that what he had said? Was it possible to turn the vampire's greatest strength against him?

Yoh rested his hand on the vampire's head, making it seem like he was trying to push the other man away. Instead he gripped the sword, waiting as the voodoo feasted on his blood, waiting as he slowly became more solid. Then, at last, the time came. One thought flitted across Yoh's mind.

_For you, Amidamaru._

The young shaman swung Amidamaru's sword round. The vampire was taken by surprise, and was now solid. Nothing could stop the blow, powered by Yoh's love for Amidamaru, and the symbol of hatred, the person who had hurt the samurai so much, was flung against the wall, cut almost in two, unconscious.

Yoh stared at the figure, chest heaving, before suddenly coming to his senses and rushing over to his samurai. He stroked the matted hair gently, silently apologising. Was it too late to forgive him? Would he ever be able to make up with the samurai, to confess that he still loved him?

Amidamaru's eyes flickered; his lips moved.

"I'm sorry Yoh..." He gasped hoarsely. "Forgive me..."

"Of course I forgive you..." The shaman cradled the swordsman's head in his lap, two tiny droplets falling from his eyes to splash on the warrior's cheeks. "But why were you so foolish?"

"It wasn't him... there are two of them... father and son... he was the son... he wasn't lying... the one that... hurt me... he's the father..." Amidamaru could not get more than a few syllables out in one breath. Yoh clasped his injured shoulder as it flared in pain.

Slowly, the shaman stood up and offered one hand to Amidamaru, who took it and used it to lever himself to a standing position, leaning heavily on Yoh.

"I've realised something." Amidamaru rasped, "it is one thing that this man has taught me. Life has no rules and honour is dead, you must do what you can to survive, and you must seize any opportunity that presents itself." The samurai paused. ""If you want me, Yoh... I am still willing to be yours. To follow your every command, to go with you to hell and back if I have to... Yoh, I want you to be my master..."

"Of course, Amidamaru... anything..." Yoh breathed. There was a pause as Amidamaru tried to swallow, his torn, bloody throat grating painfully as he spoke.

Then both embraced, clutching each other tightly, as though they would never let go, as though they would protect each other come what may. Yoh buried his head into Amidamaru's wiry, sinewy chest, while the samurai bent his head down over the shaman. All of their past arguments were suddenly unimportant, as though they had never existed. Their tears were no longer of suffering or sadness, anger or anguish, but of happiness.

"I missed you." Amidamaru sobbed. Yoh snuggled deeper into the samurai, pressing his cheek to the skin. He could hear the warrior's heartbeat, as regular as it was weak, but growing steadily stronger with every passing second. The samurai's powers of recovery certainly were admirable.

"It's my fault, Ami-chan." The young shaman insisted. "I was only so angry because I love you. I should have forgiven you sooner."

"You were right to hate me." Amidamaru said softly. "I betrayed your trust, to someone who everyone thought had raped me. You had a reason to be angry."

Both shaman and samurai stood, wrapped tightly in each other's arms, in some state of euphoria, both just relieved that they could put their anger behind them and once again unite as one.


	16. Vengeful Revelations

Yoh stared lovingly up into Amidamaru's eyes, still wrapped in the warrior's warm embrace. Their lips met in a chaste kiss, at first brushing lightly against each other, but then, before Yoh knew it, Amidamaru's tongue was coaxing his mouth open. It seemed that the samurai was healed, and no longer afraid.

Their tongues met and danced together once again. Yoh was shocked to find that he could taste blood in Amidamaru's mouth, but – surely it was logical? The young swordsman had just had his throat torn open; surely he would have coughed up some blood?

The shaman sighed as one of Amidamaru's hands roamed over his back like a lost dog; the other was supporting his head at the base of his cranium, cradling it to his chest as they broke away from the kiss.

Yoh screwed his eyes closed, remembering how close he had been to losing his samurai forever. Unconsciously, he executed the Mighty Grip of Death, a sort of very emotional hug, on the swordsman, who exhaled as his ribs were squeezed and looked questioningly down at the boy.

"I almost lost you..." The shaman spoke in explanation, "I'm never letting go of you again..."

The samurai smiled gently.

"I fear you may have to, Yoh. I fear that if you do not let me go sooner or later then you will lose me purely because of air loss when a crushed rib punctures my lung."

Yoh laughed and released Amidamaru, who staggered backwards a pace, still smiling. The smiles, however, were wiped off both their faces by a guttural, grating cough from behind them.

The vampire had awoken and was attempting to stand up, one arm clutching the gaping, bleeding wound that ran through his midriff and almost made him two vampires, the other hand clutching the wall for support. He flashed them a pained, hate-filled glare.

"I'll get you yet," He growled, staring directly at Amidamaru, who started slightly.

"Why do you hate me so much?" The samurai asked quietly, hugging Yoh to him protectively. The voodoo spat bitterly on the ground.

"Because you did this to me." He indicated his body, his fangs, the blood on his shirt. "I am like this because this is what _you_ made me!"

"What?" Amidamaru's face was a mask of confusion. "How? How I could I have done that to you? I don't understand..."

"Then let me remind you of what seems to be so easily forgotten." The vampire sneered. "I was a samurai, a few years younger than you were, and under the same shogun," the fiery-haired man began, tears of anger forming in his eyes, the first real show of emotion other than rage or abject arrogant confidence that either Yoh or Amidamaru had seen from him, "I respected you. I looked up to you; I wanted to be just like you! You were the best and everybody loved you!"

Yoh looked up at Amidamaru to see the samurai frowning slightly in confusion, not sure where the voodoo was headed.

"One night all of us samurai were summoned by our lord. He told us that you were a traitor. He ordered us to kill you and the swordsmith Mosuke on sight." The vampire paused; his face closed and devoid of emotion, yet tears openly pouring from his eyes. "I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe that the person I admired so much could possibly have betrayed me, betrayed his own shogun."

Yoh smirked slightly, not believing a word despite the tears rolling down the sinister figure's face. Amidamaru's own face was clouded, as though he was struggling to remember something, but couldn't quite place his finger on it.

"We found you on Funbari hill," The vampire continued =. "We ordered you to tell us where Mosuke was, but you were willing to die to protect him, so we had no choice but to attack you." His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "I had the perfect opportunity and, by god, I wish I had taken it!"

He turned, wild-eyed, to the samurai.

"I was standing right next to you, and one of your moves had left you wide open. I had a clear thrust to your heart – I could have killed you then and there, and been a hero among the samurai. But I couldn't do it. Instead, I ran in front of you, wanting to protect you, believing you were innocent. And you – you _attacked_ me!"

Amidamaru's eyes widened as he remembered vaguely, through the distant fogs of time, his final battle on Funbari hill. At one point, there had been a blur, a flash of fiery red-gold in front of his vision, but then it had disappeared as suddenly as it had become visible. He had dismissed it as a dying hallucination and thought nothing more of it.

"I regained consciousness later, but you were already dead. They had just left you – left you unburied, for the carrion to pick over. I thought samurai were honourable, but that was just..." the voodoo swallowed, shaking his head. "I must have passed out again, with the giant wound across my back. I heard later that you had been buried, after all. I was taken down to the village, but my injury had been poisoned by something and I could not be saved. Yoh..." the vampire's eyes were suddenly crazed. "You betrayed me! I was trying to save your life and you killed me!"

"I had already begun to attack," Amidamaru protested, "by the time you stepped in front of me, I could not have stopped my blade."

"No matter," the voodoo leered. "I could not rest in peace so I vowed that I would have revenge. I found a way to continuously reincarnate myself quite by accident, though the side effect was most despicable, and also irreversible. It is this awful monster that I have become, and now it is a habit I cannot shake, that I need to survive. I have waited these long six hundred years, before finally training as a voodoo priest and successfully reincarnating you."

Amidamaru stared in horror and disgust.

"You were willing to kill the other man, Yokiama, and your son?" His eyes widened. "You were willing to kill your own son, just to get your revenge?"

"They were weak and expendable!" The vampire spat.

"Yoh," Amidamaru muttered out the side of his mouth, still staring in a frozen, fascinated horror at the shaking man in front of them. "This is just like Tokogeroh, only so many stages worse! I beg of you, do not try to give this man a second chance as you did with the bandit. There can be nothing redeemable about him."

"No worries, Amidamaru. The poison in his fatal wound and his desire for revenge have actually twisted his mind so much that he believes he's right. No doubt he was a respectable young samurai when he was alive." Yoh looked on in pure abhorrence at the vampire before him, whose thin face, twisted with hatred and rage, still had tears running down the cheeks. "I'll get Anna down here. He's technically dead, so he'll be rendered powerless against her necklace."

The vampire snarled and spat at them as they exited the basement, but the seriousness of his injury prevented him from doing much more damage.

* * *

Manta was beside himself.

"Can't you two go one day without getting hurt?" He screeched at a pitch that would have made any dogs within a fifty-mile radius whine pathetically. "I've run out of bandages!"

He glared at Yoh, who was clutching his shoulder almost apologetically, and then at Amidamaru, whose torn throat was hard to miss. It bobbed up and down as the samurai swallowed nervously.

"I am sorry, Manta, but this man seems to have a grudge against me."

"Yeah, that qualifies for understatement of the century!" Yoh grinned and Amidamaru smiled also, shifting closer to Yoh and putting one arm around him. Manta raised an eyebrow and looked confused, but Yoh's grin just widened as he leant further in to the samurai.

"O...kay..." Manta continued to stare for a moment, but seemed to realise that it was none of his business. He shook himself slightly and tied a makeshift tourniquet around Yoh's shoulder before glancing at Amidamaru's throat.

"I can't really do anything for the throat, Amidamaru. You'll have to leave that one. I imagine having a bandage round it would restrict your breathing."

Amidamaru inclined his head in a gratuitous bow.

"Thank you, Manta." He muttered before turning to Yoh. "I am going to have a bath and wash away my bloodstains – you do not mind, I hope?"

"Course not!" The shaman grinned, absentmindedly patting Manta on the head as they walked away, oblivious to the short one's cries of indignation.

* * *

A while later, Yoh swiftly padded to the bathroom to take a shower. He had looked in on the large, heated outdoor pool, but had fount it was empty, and so had assumed that Amidamaru had finished and gone somewhere private for some time alone.

He slowly opened the bathroom door and looked up to see the samurai lounging in the small, modest bath that lay, usually forgotten, in the corner of the room.

"Oh – sorry, Ami-chan!" He said in apology. "I didn't realise you were in here – I thought you'd finished."

The young swordsman made no move, no sign that he had even noticed the boy. Yoh frowned and quietly stepped towards the motionless samurai.

"Amidamaru?" He asked again. There was a small sound from the warrior, who stirred slightly, turning his head to the side. Yoh realised that he was sleeping, and, with a slight twang somewhere in his chest area, he realised also that this was the first time he had seen his samurai naked. True, the bubbles in the bath concealed the other man's lower regions, but still...

Water dripped down the gleaming, muscular torso and Yoh calmly stroked the man's wet, pale hair, trailing his hand down the warrior's back. The shaman gasped out loud. Amidamaru's back was ridged, as though there were great slashes etched deep in to the firm, sinewy flesh. He looked round and saw the scars and lacerations from the riding crop, the sight filling him with a red-hot anger – he had not realised there had been so many! He hated that stupid vampire. He had no right to do what he had done to Amidamaru.

The samurai awoke with a whimper as Yoh's fingers, though gentle, caused one of the particularly nasty wounds to flare back in to life. Yoh whipped his hand away, staring as Amidamaru arched his back and cried out once.

Just once.

"Sorry." Yoh mumbled, looking away. Amidamaru smiled bitterly.

"It is I who should be sorry." He exhaled gently, allowing the soothing water to lap over his scarred body. "I see you have discovered my whipscars. I should not have attempted to hide them from you."

Yoh stared silently at the lacerations, digesting the information, until Amidamaru, seeing how uneasy his injuries made the boy, sank into the warm, bubbly bathwater right up to his neck, concealing his entire body apart from his head. Yoh blinked and shook his own head, looking sorrowfully into Amidamaru's dark, baleful eyes.

"Most of them were punishment when I did not perform to the correct standard." The samurai answered the unspoken question that Yoh was almost certainly too nervous to ask.

"Perform?" Yoh asked confusedly. Amidamaru looked down at the water, trancelike, as he spoke.

"To him I was little more than a performing seal, a trained dog to play with." He added a small shrug to the end of the words, as though it was no big deal, but Yoh could see how the samurai's shoulders shook. The young shaman ran his hand gently along Amidamaru's scarred back under the bathwater, comforting the older man.

Amidamaru sighed and looked up at Yoh again before smiling weakly. Then he stood up in the bath, stretching water running in streams down his tanned chest. He laughed slightly and pulled a towel around his waist as Yoh blushed and closed his eyes.

"Sorry," He said in a rich voice, filled with humour. "I had to get out. I would have turned in to a prune if I had stayed in any longer."

"No, um, problem." Yoh responded, his voice slightly squeaky, his eyes screwed tight shut. He wasn't sure if it was modesty or a desire for suspense that made him react so – surely he would see Amidamaru naked soon enough anyway? There were lovers, after all.

"It's late, Yoh." The samurai's calm, serene voice cut through his mind. "You would like to go to bed?"

The young shaman straightened up. Had Amidamaru just made a sexual overture? No. Looking at the young warrior, who radiated only an honest innocence, Yoh realised that his friend would rather go back to being a slave to the voodoo than feel he was putting pressure on Yoh. He wanted Yoh to be in control, Yoh to call the shots.

"Yes." The shaman said at last. "Let's go to bed."


	17. Learning

_**Note: To answer the question from Wolf Demon, Kyoko Asakura:** Bugger! I forgot about that! Um... lets just say that our little voodoo friend can't turn a shaman into an undead, because that's kind of strange – shamans exist on the planes of both living and dead, as do vampires. A human is turned in to a vampire when bitten because the bite causes them to live on the plane of the dead as well as that of the living, but if shamans already exist on both planes... then it makes sense that they can't be turned... if you look at it logically, it does work somehow ;_

* * *

With a small exhalation, Yoh flung himself on his bed, beckoning Amidamaru to join him. The samurai hesitantly sat on the side of the bed, but was immediately pulled further on as Yoh's mouth latched on to his own.

The swordsman rolled on top of the young shaman, propping himself up on his elbows. Yoh gazed in to his calm, serene eyes.

"Amidamaru?" Yoh's own eyes were half-closed in their usual carefree way. "Please, Amidamaru... show me..."

"Show you what, Yoh?" The warrior responded, the seemingly careless laziness of his words hiding the pounding of his heart.

"Show me what it's like... you know, what lovers do with each other... show me pleasure..."

"But – "

"Please, Amidamaru..." There was an almost puppy-like mournfulness in the boy's eyes and Amidamaru gave a tiny shudder, knowing he could not say "no".

Yoh supported himself on his elbows, pressing in to Amidamaru's chest and making it easier for the samurai to slowly slide his shirt off his shoulders. One soft hand passed teasingly over the shaman's chest, brushing the sensitive areas around his nipples and lovingly caressing the tan nubs. Yoh's breathing caught, but, once again, Amidamaru's mouth claimed his own.

The swordsman's hand moved down the shaman's stomach, and his erotic groan severed the kiss. Then, suddenly, the hand stopped moving and the boy was aware of a tiny drip of wetness on his chest, followed rapidly by another, and then a third. He opened his eyes to see Amidamaru crying, the samurai's tears splashing down on to his body.

"What's wrong?" He asked concernedly, instantly moving a hand up to stroke the warrior's pale hair, which was still damp and straggly from the bath.

"Oh, Yoh... can't you see?" Amidamaru wept openly. "That you would let me love you... that you would let me do this – to you. It's so wonderful, Yoh!"

There was an unprecedented joy and, to some extents, a near pain behind the heartfelt words, and Yoh silently wondered whether his samurai had endured an entire existence of rejection.

"Of course I'll let you, Ami-chan," Yoh murmured softly, the hand in the warrior's pale hair gently twisting a strand round the fingers. "I'll let you do whatever you want to me because I trust you."

Amidamaru swallowed and nodded, and, suddenly, his exploratory hand slipped down into Yoh's trousers, gently fondling the shaman's arousal. Yoh gasped and squirmed as the long, quick fingers skilfully passed over his length, weighing it out, softly memorising the contours.

It started as a subtle building of pressure in his abdomen, slowly growing in to something much more intense, causing him to cry out in both shock and pleasure, but his screams were lost in Amidamaru's mouth, which had once again captured his in a kiss.

No words are powerful enough to describe the next feeling, an exquisite mix of slight pain and extreme pleasure. Yoh's stomach muscles contracted several times and his yell may have woken the other occupants of the house had it not been swallowed by Amidamaru as he spilled his seed into the loving warrior's waiting hand.

And then, all too soon, it was over. His first ever orgasm was just a rapidly fading memory as he lay panting on the bed, the samurai's hand withdrawing from his trousers.

He looked, with twitching face, into Amidamaru's calm, gentle gaze.

"You would like me to do it again?" The samurai asked neutrally, his tone neither imperious nor pushy, leaving Yoh to make a free decision. Again? The shaman couldn't even begin to comprehend again – his mind was still muzzy from the first time.

The young swordsman seemed to understand, however, caressing his cheek, the rush of his breath over Yoh's face causing the young shaman to shiver unconsciously.

"It's ok, Yoh." The soft voice rang through the air, which seemed to almost be heated by the flush from Yoh's entire body. "Was that your first time?"

The shaman felt the blush before it appeared on his cheeks and bowed his head, wrenching it away from Amidamaru's comforting hand.

"Yes," he whispered, blinking a few times before gathering the courage to look back into the samurai's eyes.

"There's no need to be ashamed," Amidamaru murmured sleepily. "There's a first time for everything."

The samurai turned to stare at the ceiling through his half-closed eyes, images of Yoh's ecstatic face as he had released flashing before his vision. Who would have thought – who could have dreamed – that the young shaman would ever let him do that, would let him recognise his heart's desire and pleasure the boy?

"Amidamaru?" Yoh asked, seemingly in a daze. The samurai rolled over to once again look at the shaman's young face. "Amidamaru... don't leave me... it's cold without you..."

The swordsman inhaled sharply, and one hand moved to clutch his chest slightly. Yoh watched him uncertainly, moving one hand to where the samurai held his heart. It was quickly enveloped underneath Amidamaru's.

"Yoh..." The young swordsman swallowed, seemingly painfully. "It is Sunday night – tomorrow will be Monday and you have school. Surely Anna will be here to wake you up? She does not deserve to find out – especially not like that."

The shaman stared, the blunt wisdom of Amidamaru's words ringing home, only to succeed in making them all the more painful. He bowed his head slightly and the samurai's hand moved from under his own to wrap around Yoh's body. The shaman was pulled into the warrior's chest tightly.

"I – I want nothing more..." Amidamaru continued with a dry, tearless sob. "But there are other people in this house who may be affected by this relationship and we must respect them as well."

"I understand." Yoh said shortly, turning away. He did not quite know why he felt angry – maybe it was because Amidamaru was not thinking only of him, but of everyone in the house. Perhaps he lusted for his samurai to think only of him, as if that would make him feel better when Anna walked in the next morning to discover them curled in each other's arms.

Amidamaru's mouth descended, almost apologetically, searching for his. There was a brief struggle within his mind whether to grant the samurai what he wanted, but his own desire intervened and, without quite realising it, he had tilted his head up to close the gap.

Amidamaru's stubble grazed his skin as they kissed; Yoh's hands felt the hard strength of his warrior's muscles. How lucky he was, to have some as gentle and caring, and yet still as strong and physically tough as Amidamaru love him.

The samurai rolled out of the bed, landing almost noiselessly on his feet and slipping his sandals back on. He smiled sadly at Yoh, who returned the gesture gently and kindly.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, then?" He asked lightly. Amidamaru grinned in relief and nodded before padding out of the shaman's room.

* * *

The samurai turned over in bed, not asleep, not quite awake, floating on an imaginary cloud. He thought, if he strained his ears, he could hear soft, regular sounds, almost like footsteps – but they were all in his imagination, yes?

He shook himself awake as, with an ominous creak, the door swung open, and he stared at it puzzeldly.

"Yoh?" He asked uncertainly, wondering if it was the young shaman sneaking in to visit him. There was no sound in response, so the samurai reckoned it to be the wind. He swung himself out of bed to close the door.

There was a movement behind him as he again shut the door, and his eyes widened as he realised something – _had he remembered to lock the basement door?_

The swordsman barely had time for a quick "oh, fuck!" before the figure behind him grabbed his arm tightly and twisted it painfully up his back.

"Don't make a sound," a voice growled next to his ear, "it'll be worse if you do."

"What do you want?" The samurai retorted, trying to ignore the twinges from his arm. "Haven't you done enough already?"

"I thought I had – when I saw you in the same state my son was in when I had broken his spirit. But you recovered. My son was obviously too weak to do so, and I had expected you to act in the same way."

Amidamaru grunted slightly as his arm was twisted further up his back.

"He was stronger than you think," he managed at last, inhaling sharply as a flare of pain lanced through his nerves. "If you'd have just given him a chance... his spirit was broken because you started on him at a very young age, if you had left it, if only for another few years..."

The vampire pulled upwards some more, cutting Amidamaru off.

"I was trying to toughen him up, so that he might have been able to help me with my revenge. The pathetic rag couldn't even stop crying after his mother died."

"Times have changed," the samurai gasped. "This world is no longer in a famine, children these days do not have to put up with the torture we did in our time – you overdid it! The living is softer now, they no longer have to kill each other to survive."

"Shut up!" The voodoo snarled, wrenching upwards again, again forcing Amidamaru into silence. "If they do not kill to survive, how do you explain my most recent "death"? I was shot by a device of murder known as a "gun" – tell me now that they do not kill to survive!"

Amidamaru felt waves of excruciating pain and nauseating sickness as, with a sound like a gunshot, his arm snapped. It took all of the samurai's self control to stop himself crying out in pain as, with one final tug, the vampire threw the limp, now-useless limb away from him. The swordsman cradled it protectively, his face contorted, trying to ease the agony.

It was at that moment Yoh walked in. He had heard the voices through the thin wall, having been lying awake, thinking about Amidamaru. His quick, dark eyes scanned over the murky room, over Amidamaru, grey-faced with pain, clutching his injured arm to his chest, and over the vampire, who was panting with exertion and hidden emotion.

"Can't you take a hint?" He asked finally, quietly, taking a step towards the vampire and grabbing one of Amidamaru's katanas off the table they lay on, which was positioned conveniently close to the door. "Why will you not fuck off?"

"I cannot rest in peace now – thanks to him!" The vampire pointed an accusing finger at Amidamaru, his face again filled with hatred. Yoh rolled his eyes.

"If you had not become so obsessed with revenge, you would have been able to rest in peace when you were killed!"

"Shut up!" the voodoo spat. "Why are you friends with the fiend? He will only destroy you like he destroyed me, and countless other innocent samurai!"

"I trust him," Yoh responded, all too aware of Amidamaru's slight whimpering moan from the corner he had withdrawn into.

"Then you are the fool." The voodoo said, rushing Yoh. The shaman was still, frozen with shock, and the vampire sped right past him and out of the door.

Yoh felt a sharp pain in his chest and realised he was lying on the floor. There was something wet on his hands and he heard Amidamaru gasp almost breathlessly. Was there something wrong? He should go and look at his samurai's arm...

The shaman had the strangest feeling that he was peeling himself off the floor as he pushed himself to his feet, before swaying slightly and crashing down again. Why couldn't he stand up? Maybe the wetness on his hand was something to do with it – what was it on his hand?

He looked at his hand, but, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't focus on it – it stayed blurry, fuzzy. Was he going blind? He looked away, the amount of times he had tried to focus making him go cross-eyed. His gaze was dragged upwards – was that Amidamaru looking over him? Oh... strange... he was so tired all of a sudden... all he wanted to do was sleep...

"Yoh – Yoh? Yoh, answer me!" the samurai's strained voice was quiet, as though played at minimum volume on his headphones. Ha... that was funny... why wouldn't Amidamaru go away and let him sleep? He was tired... oh, so tired... he had school tomorrow – but what was school? Could he sleep there? Hmm... sleeping sounded good...

He felt a hand on his chest, and the pain eased a little – but what pain? He had forgotten that his chest was hurting... maybe he was just... too... sleepy... oh, the hand was doing something to his chest... smoothing it over? Why was Amidamaru doing that? What was going on? Everything was muzzy – the swordsman was disturbing him, keeping him from closing his eyes and relaxing.

"Go... 'way... let me sleep..." He yawned out, hoping Amidamaru would take the message, before he let go and drifted away on a silent ship, bound for the realm of dreams.

Amidamaru stared down at the unconscious boy, at the fresh, deep wound in the shaman's sternum, his own broken arm forgotten. Who would have thought that the voodoo would have a concealed knife?

It had all happened so fast, too fast to comprehend – one minute Yoh and the voodoo were having a conversation, the next – the vampire had rushed Yoh, and, as quick as a flash, plunged his knife into the boy's chest and withdrew it as the shaman fell, fleeing the room.

The samurai gazed sightlessly down at Yoh in shock – the vampire had been right, after all. He was bad luck to know – he had killed or hurt all his friends. Mosuke, the vampire himself... and now Yoh...

Maybe it would be better if no one knew him at all.


	18. Epilogue

Amidamaru sat up with Yoh until late the next morning, after managing to carry the unconscious shaman to his bed with one arm, his now-useless limp hanging limply by his side. He had tied his white belt around it, a makeshift sling, and, though it did not help the break much, it did ease the pain slightly.

The samurai couldn't bring himself to look at Yoh's pale face – it seemed that everyone he cared about was destined to be hurt by him, in some way or another. Was the vampire right? Was it bad luck to be a friend of the Fiend?

"Oh, Yoh…" he breathed, his good hand moving to gently brush a stray lock of dark hair from his shaman's face. "I am sorry. This is… all my fault. Forgive me."

Through some miracle of strength, the teen's eyes opened a fraction and a limp hand moved to clutch the samurai's. After jumping, Amidamaru smiled in relief.

"Thank the gods…" He breathed, helping Yoh into a sitting position. "I was worried."

"'Maru?" A small husky voice came forth from the injured shaman, causing the samurai to lean closer to him. Smiling at the sudden closeness, Yoh kissed his former ghost on the cheek. " 'M fine… you look hurt.."

Before the swordsman could even utter a response, the door to the room was opened. If Amidamaru had expected Anna or even Katsumi he was mistaken, because it was neither who walked through the door; it was Silva.

"What…?" Yoh raised heavy-lidded eyes to stare at the Patch, whose five ghosts were restraining a certain struggling vampire.

"I found him outside." Came the bland explanation. "From what I heard, he is the cause of all this. Goldva has shown me how I can return Amidamaru to his original form _and_ destroy this creature before it hurts anyone else."

Silence followed the blank statement before Yoh heaved himself out of bed. The shaman was against totally destroying anything, but Katsumi was eaten up with a bitter raging hatred, and every time he hurt Amidamaru for revenge, the truth is he was only hurting himself more. It would be a great kindness unto the fiend if he simply did not exist.

"Oh?" The swordsman asked, loyally at his shaman's side still. "How would you do that?"

"It was voodoo that has done this, samurai." Silva responded, pouring his mana into the writhing vampire and stilling him. "Therefore it must be fixed by voodoo. Goldva has knowledge of a ritual that, though has not been performed successfully before, will return you to your original state of ghost."

"Never been done before?" Yoh asked weakly, though Silva didn't hear as he was too busy listening to Amidamaru's question of:

"What does this entail?"

"This one," Silva shook Katsumi, "will be utterly destroyed, and the energy released from that, like nuclear fusion, will instantly kill you, no matter what rituals have already been performed."

"And what if I don't want to die?"

"Yoh will forfeit the tournament."

Those words caused a long silence, which was interrupted by said shaman's quiet words.

"Don't die, Ami-chan. I'll forfeit."

"Don't be ridiculous." The swordsman snorted in humourless amusement. "You can't forfeit the tournament. I've died once, I don't mind doing it again."

Silva nodded, laying down a time for when the ritual was to be completed.

It was Yoh's greatest regret that he was unable to be there when Silva killed Amidamaru and destroyed their greatest enemy. He had sworn to himself he would not let Amidamaru die alone again, though his only consolation was that Silva was there – at least Silva was a familiar usually-friendly face.

All the young shaman knew was that an immensely bright light had come, and then Silva had deposited ash outside the door where Yoh was waiting.

That had been all that was left of Katsumi.

Amidamaru appeared not long after, looking quite shy and bashful, a samurai ghost in modern clothing. Yoh had felt a pang of hurt when he had moved to hug his warrior but had only grasped air – ghosts, after all, were not solid matter.

They could still join, of course, in integration. But it just wasn't the same. Yoh wasn't sure what Amidamaru thought, but he knew he would miss the samurai's touch, and that one time that Amidamaru had shown him such pleasure.. that would stay in his mind forever.

"Amidamaru…?" He asked his ghost, the first words he had spoken since before the ritual. The samurai turned a translucent face onto Yoh, speaking after a pause.

"I am glad to be back."


End file.
